


Open Up The Ocean, Jump On In.

by lowqualtom



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst?, Camping, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fighting, Fluff, Nature, Sadness, curls, cute ig, michelle likes his hair, soft, they have to share his bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2019-10-14 22:11:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17516771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lowqualtom/pseuds/lowqualtom
Summary: Michelle, Peter, Ned and Gwen go camping.They discover they can't survive without Aunt May.Peter discovers Michelle isn't that much of a bitch.Michelle discovers Peter isn't that much of a dick.





	1. Chapter 1

There was nothing more MJ wanted to do right now than punch Gwen right smack dab in the face.

She knew Michelle and Peter had this weird, admittedly stupid, tension between them. It wasn't Michelle's fault he was a bit of dick but hot, he was a hot dick, also a nerd. Michelle would never admit it (or show it) but she kind of digged it. How cliche. Maybe she'd admit it on her death bed. Maybe. 

So when Gwen announced she would be taking one tent with Ned, MJ was left fuming. She specifically told Gwen she would only tag online on this trip if the girls shared one tent and the boys shared another. Michelle couldn't care less that Ned was her boyfriend. The stupid camping trip was already stupid and now it was about to get stupider. Of course, MJ was the only one who understood what Gwen was doing.

She shrugged and muttered an 'oops' with a stupidly annoying smile on her face. Not another word was spoken as she grabbed Ned's hand, giving him a coy smile and sashayed off to one of the two tents. Michelle grabbed her duffel bag and looked at Peter.

"Either you follow me or sleep under the stars, your choice," Shrugging, Michelle stalked off to the other tent with her arms folded across her chest. He furrowed his brows but followed you anyway.

So there they both were, standing at the entrance of the two-man tent. Michelle was not drawn to enter it whatsoever, even if she was getting into it with Gwen. There also wouldn't be any kind of space between the two teenagers because Gwen had insisted that two double air mattresses instead of four singles would save space and be more cost efficient. She'd also insisted on bringing duvets instead of sleeping bags because 'they felt weird on her feet.'

Peter and Michelle both looked at each other before she sighed.

"I'm taking the left,"

"I sleep on the left,"

There was a wild scramble as MJ dropped her bag to the grass and they both tried to undo the one hundred pointless zips on the tent to get inside and to get to the left side. There were limbs flailing everywhere as they both attempted to lay on the left, Michelle ended up pushing her feet against his chest, causing Peter to fall into the gap between the mattress and the tent wall.

"Fuck, alright, alright," He stood up and rubbed his hip. "I'll go on the right, calm your tits."

"How about no?"

"Oh yeah," He fake mused, looking at you before pretending to pout. "You haven't got any to calm,"

"That's real rich coming from you, short ass. Go crawl back into your stupid hole in the ground or wherever hobbits live,"

Peter scowled at the nickname he'd heard from her mouth far more than he'd like. She smiled sweetly at him before sitting up and taking her shirt off, grabbing her pyjama shirt from her bag and pulling it over her head. Michelle discovered it was rather difficult to get changed in a tiny tent.

"Stop staring at me, perv," She turned to look at him, glaring when he raised his hands defensively and looked away.

"Not my fault you just ripped your damn shirt off in front of me, hardly even had time to look away,"

She took her pants off, again, with great difficulty and crawled back outside the tent, brushing her teeth and spitting onto the grass before going back into the tent to see Peter taking his shirt off. He sat in sweatpants on top of the duvet as he scrolled through something on his phone, his back facing her. "Stop staring at me, perv,"

She could hear the smirk on his face as she chucked her toothpaste at his back. "Are you seriously going to not wear a shirt?"

"Yes, problem?" His eyes followed Michelle as she organised all her things before laying under the duvet on the left side of the air mattress. "Are you seriously going to not wear pants?"

"Yes, problem?" Michelle smiled, smiling while also shooting daggers at him at the same time.

She lay down with her head in the pillow, facing away from him. Michelle could faintly see the glow from his phone screen against the tent wall before you could hear the occasional Instagram video playing.

The son of a bitch was watching fan-made edits of himself, well, Spider-Man.

"Are you serious right now? Go to fucking sleep," Michelle grumbled and pressed her face into the pillow. You heard him laugh to himself and you could just imagine his head getting so big it exploded. Oh, how you wish it would.

"Fine whatever, was just you know interacting with my fans, showing them I loved them and appreciated them but whatever guess I'll just ignore them'" A shuffling noise was heard as he sighed dramatically and the bed dipped as he scooted further down the mattress.

"You can't even interact them dumbass, sometimes I wonder how you keep a secret identity," A growl escaped her mouth and she took the pillow out from under her head just to hit him with it. He shouted protests, grabbing the pillow from MJ and placing it between the two of them.

"See this? It's a wall, I won't go on your side and you won't go on mine? Cool."

She huffed but said nothing, closing her eyes as she turned away from him again. The tent became quiet and stayed that way. The sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the bushes was strangely comforting. MJ decided to focus on the rather than the... suggestive noises coming from the tent next to them. She was just beginning to fall asleep when the constant sound of shuffling and movement of the deflated mattress interrupted her.

The tent began to shake too, making such a racket that MJ swore she'd never heard anything louder. Maybe that was an exaggeration but it was Peter making the noise, so it was horrific by default.

She took a deep, frustrated breath in, hoping that it would end soon and you would be fine. It didn't.

"Stop moving you twat," She mumbled under her breath.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, don't mind me, just trying to get comfy so I can get some rest,"

The sarcasm was not appreciated and Michelle showed that by tugging at the duvet cover, smiling when she knew she was successful at pulling them off him. Peter groaned and tugged them back. Hence, a war ensued.

In the end, Michelle let him win. She didn't have the time or the energy to fight so instead she shuffled in closer to the centre of the tent in an attempt to gain more cover.

So now she'd lost her only pillow, blanket and at least an hour of sleep to Peter. It was ridiculous but all she wanted was to sleep and not have to listen to Gwen's annoying giggles anymore. MJ could feel the cheeky smile radiating off him but she bit her tongue.

"Knew you'd give up,"

"Shut up,"

"I always win,"

"Shut up,"

"I'm Spider-Man,"

"Literally fuck off,"

"You love me,"

"Try the opposite,"

"You're a bad liar,"

"Not lying, shut up dickwad, I'm trying to sleep,"

"Dickwad, that's new,"

"No, it's not, dickwad."

"Hm, whatever you say,"

"My God you are so annoying, why do you have to be so ho-"

"So?"

"Nothing. Night,"

"Goodnight, MJ,"

-9 hours earlier-

It was Gwen's car, so obviously she was driving and Ned was sitting in the passenger seat, holding her hand over the centre console.

That meant Peter and MJ were stuck in the back, squished together in Gwen's tiny green beetle. MJs legs were far too long for the back seat of her car so that meant she folded her legs under her instead of stretching them out.

Occasionally her knee would bump into Peter's leg, making them both scowl at each other and sometimes, try pit the blame on the other before Ned would have to break the argument up.

"Can you get your giraffe limbs away from me? Thanks,"

"Which of the seven dwarves are you today? Grumpy?"

"I'm not even that short!" Peter exclaimed, waving his hands in the air.

Michelle looked up from her book and smiles cheekily at him. "I guess you're right, what's the weather like down there?"

"Wow, real original, nerd," Peter flicked the cover of her book, causing her to reach across and flick his arm.

"Did you just seriously call me a nerd? Have you even looked at the shirt you're wearing, don't flick my book,"

Of course, Peter flicked her book again, looking incredibly proud of himself. Michelle dog-eared her page and grabbed the book with two hands, bringing it down on top of his head.

Peter ducked as he was hit, grabbing the book out of her hands the second the thick book collided with his head. He then returned the favour, hitting her on the arm with it.

"Um, Ow!"

"You hit me first!"

"You flicked me first!" MJ reached across him to try and snatch her book back, but couldn't reach because he'd now dangled his arm out the window, the book only held by two of his fingers. "Don't you dare, Parker,"

He did dare, boy, would he regret that.

-1 hour later-

The bag of frozen peas Peter made Gwen pull over to get was now almost completely melted. He could feel the bruise on the side of his jaw forming and healing at the same time, a feeling he was pretty familiar with now.

Michelle had pulled another book out from who knows where seemingly unaffected now that she had decked Peter in the face and told him he had to replace the lost one. Well, screamed at him alongside a few choice profanities.

Peter was keeping up his grumpy attitude, a constant furrow in his brows. His arms were folded across his chest, one hand holding the peas to his jaw.

Empty sushi containers lay around the car, Michelle kindly placing hers on Peter's lap when she was done. It took everything in him not to pick it up and throw it at her. Instead, he placed the plastic onto the floor of the car, making a mental note to take all the rubbish out of the car when they arrived.

Peter decided on looking out the window and shoving his headphones in, doing anything possible to forget about the situation he was in. He was also pretending to be in a music video but that's not something he would like to admit.

When he agreed to go on this trip, he thought it would be fun. Camping with his best friend, even if he would be third wheeling a little. Even Mr Stark had encouraged it, saying that New York would be just fine for a few days without Spider-Man.

May had made him pack four days in advance, going through his suitcase a hundred times to make sure he had everything. She bought him a first aid kit, a walkie talkie, a new raincoat, a new sleeping bag, everything. Peter insisted a million times he never needed any of that stuff but nevertheless, he appreciated it.

Now he was wishing May would've packed a teleportation device.

"Peter?"

Peter hummed and looked forward at Gwen, taking a headphone out.

"Is your jaw ok?" She snickered, her eyes full of amusement as she noticed a smile stretching across of Michelle's face.

"Just great, thanks Gwen,"

"MJ has a pretty mean punch. I didn't know she had it in her,"

"Yeah," He sneered. "Considering I could snap her arm in half in a heartbeat she's pretty brave,"

"Peter," Michelle scoffed. "You called me while freaking out once because you punched someone too hard and their eyes watered,"

"I was having a bad day ok? I can be- mean," He stuttered and furrowed his brows as he thought of the right word to say.

"Sure, like a ball of cotton is mean,"

"A ball of- what?"

Michelle shrugged, continuing to read her book. Ned and Gwen laughed at Peter's expense. He huffed and slouched in his seat, regretting coming on the trip yet again. 

-2 hours later-

The second Gwen parked the car at the campsite, Peter all but smashed the door to the ground with his legs. He'd never felt so cramped before and sitting for long periods of time was hard for him.

He lifted his arms over his head, causing his shirt to ride up a tiny bit. The hair on the back of his neck stood up a little, he looked up to see Michelle's eyes trained onto the exposed torso. Peter flushed a little and immediately lowered his arms, causing her to look away.

His eyes flickered up and down her frame as she too stretched out her long limbs. Peter watched as her own shirt lifted up a little but quickly looked away when too much was exposed for his comfort (which wasn't really that much.)

Ned and Gwen started to empty out the boot of the car, taking out the tents and various other camping gear they'd brought along. Peter helped take out the heavier stuff, like the cooler full of drinks and the box of food.

Michelle stood behind them, enthralled with her book. The peas lay forgotten on the grass, a small puddle forming underneath them. Gwen decided it was 'too hot' to help put up the tents, so she sat in the boot of the car and watched Ned and Peter put it up.

Once the tent had been pitched but not yet finished, Peter looked over only to see Michelle still reading her book, not having moved an inch.

"I don't know if you knew, Michelle, but you're sleeping in one of these tents too,"

"I did know, thanks Peter,"

"You haven't lifted a single weirdly long finger since we got here,"

"Don't pretend like you don't like my weirdly long fingers," She finally looked up from her book and quirked a brow.

"I don't like your weirdly long fingers,"

"Do you?"

Peter furrowed his brows and stuttered, finding himself speechless. It was a skill MJ had mastered, rendering people, Peter, speechless. She knew how to win the fight while still making sense but in a way that no one knew how to respond. If there was one thing MJ was proud of, it was that.

The two boys quickly returned to putting up the tent but managed to hit a wall at the second one. It was different, neither could figure out how to put it up.

Gwen was listening to music on her phone and Michelle watched, unamused. "You know, for a couple of nerds you're fucking stupid,"

"Alright, Michelle, you come put it up then,"

She shrugged, dog-earring her page and putting it down. MJ stretched her arms and walked straight to the tent, ignoring Ned offering her the instructions. In a matter of what seemed like seconds, the poles were in and the tent had been popped up.

Holding back a shit-eating grin at the boys' faces, she narrowed her eyes. "This is the tent I brought from home,"

-3 hours later-

Everyone was covered in mince.

Except for Peter.

He was the one who tripped and spilt the mince.

Gwen squealed, Ned laughed, Michelle, well, Michelle has never looked more murderous in her entire life.

She peeled off the shirt that was soaked in meat juice and threw it at him. The shirt stuck to his face and he cringed as he peeled it off. He peeled it off too late to see an angry MJ charging towards him. The fold-away table rattled as she stood up, it was also covered in mince. 

"I'm a fucking vegetarian Peter! I literally don't even eat meat and now I'm covered in it! That's my favourite shirt too, you're so lucky I wasn't holding a book right now or you'd be fucking dead," 

Her hands collided with his chest and he raised his own in defence, covering his face with memories of being punched by her flickering through his mind.

Gwen ran forward and grabbed MJ, holding her hands in her own and forcing the angry girl away from Peter. He pushed apologies out at a million miles an hour and wiped his hand along his face to get the mince off.

Michelle ripped her hands away from Gwen, glaring at Peter with a stare so sharp he'd rather have a knife in his arm for the fifth time.

The tall girl turned her back to Peter and stalked off to the car, flipping the boy off without so much as looking back.

Peter cracked a small grin.

"I tripped, it was a mince-steak,"

Present

The next morning Michelle woke up, warmer than she usually felt. She took a deep breath in and opened her arms only to find herself buried into Peter's chest. She immediately recoiled, untangling her legs and slipping her now dead arm out from under him. The pillow that was between the two at the start of the night was now on the floor of the tent.

Sitting up, she attempted to run a hand through her thick hair and sighed, looking at Peter's sleeping form. He actually looked kind of peaceful and not like a prick for once. Cursing herself for staring, she heard him start to wake up and immediately pretended to be asleep, facing away from him again.

MJ would've been successful in convincing him that was how she'd slept the whole night if he hadn't woken up earlier before falling back asleep after deciding he didn't have the heart to move her.


	2. Chapter 2

When Peter woke up, MJ was still pretending to be asleep. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, taking in a few deep breathes before looking down at MJ.

The mesh window next to her had been left open and let in the morning sun. Peter felt incredibly warm, almost too warm but looking at fake-sleeping MJ made him even warmer, a good warm.

Her skin seemed to almost radiate gold, her dark complexion glowing. Peter gulped when he caught himself staring and almost had to force himself to look away. Sighing, he pulled a shirt on and tried to unzip the door of the tent as quietly as possible.

Peter discovered that tents don't unzip quietly. Ever.

"Shut up, Parker," MJ mumbled, even though she was already awake she'd did not appreciate her eye resting being interrupted.

"I need to pee, alright? Would you rather I pee in here?" Peter whispered, not wanting to wake up Ned and Gwen even though they'd tried their best to keep Peter and MJ up all night.

"Whatever just go," Her voice was muffled by the pillow and if it weren't for his heightened hearing he probably would have no idea what she'd just said.

So Peter exited the tent and zipped it back up, making his way to the campgrounds shared bathroom. (He still found it ridiculous that it was 50 cents per 5 minutes in the showers, did he look rich to them?)

It was still cold outside, Peter didn't know the time but he could tell it was early from the way the grass was still covered in dew. The air but his skin as he walked but he kind of liked it.

This was a big change from the city. The most noticeable change was how quiet this place was compared to his home. He wasn't sure if he liked it or not. One thing was for sure, he felt like he was really breathing for the first time.

Gwen was making some kind of breakfast when Peter got back. The cheap portable barbecue they'd found at the department store was propped open on the table, leaning precariously to one side.

"Morning, Gwen," Peter yawned as he rounded the table, wrapping one arm around her in a side hug.

"You smell like boy," Gwen scrunched her nose but hugged back anyway. "Morning, Peter,"

Peter frowned and opened up his shirt, ducking his head down into the opening to catch a whiff of himself. "I smell normal,"

"Hm," Gwen mused, causing Peter to spiral into another panic and sniff his armpit. "Pancakes?"

Peter pulled his head away from his armpit, still stressed and now believing that Gwen thinks he always smells bad, to see a plate extended out towards him. "Oh, thanks,"

The two opened up camping chairs and took a seat facing each other. Both were quiet for a moment before Peter noticed a small smirk cross Gwen's face. "...What?"

"I heard you and MJ last night," She shoved a pancake into her mouth and swallowed her smile along with it.

"What," Peter quirked a brow. "Fighting?"

"Flirting,"

Peter suddenly forgot how to chew and swallow because he immediately started coughing his lungs out. His eyes watered as he hacked out the piece of food. He wiped away a tear from his face and looked at Gwen. "I'm sorry, what? That was not flirting,"

"It wa-as," Gwen sing-songed, smiling at Peter.

He shook his head and shovelled down the rest of his food. His plastic plate clattered on the table as he set it down. The sound of the tent door being opened made Peter turn his head and watch MJ stumble out, nearly falling over. A snicker escaped his mouth and a middle finger flipped up from her hand.

The girl sighed and tied her hair up into a bun on her head. Peter's eyes flickered up and down her curves, noticing she'd put on sweat pants. His sweatpants. "Did you make me food, loser?"

"Nope. Why are you wearing my pants?"

Michelle looked down at her pants before shrugging, Gwen smiled. Michelle lifted her leg up to wave her foot in his direction. It was incredibly noticeable that the leg ended on MJ's shin where it would normally meet Peter's ankle. "I just wanted to know what dressing up as Napoleon felt like,"

He sighed and closed his eyes, biting into his fist. His nose scrunched and his toes curled. It was too early in the morning for-- MJ.

His lips pursed and he watched MJ get herself a couple of pancakes and sit in between Peter and Gwen. Their small talk sounded like white noise to Peter and he hardly noticed when Ned joined them.

It'd been hardly a day and he missed May with all of him. He missed waking up to the smell of burnt food, burnt coffee and burnt hair. (May wasn't too great with a straightener.) He also missed waking up in an actual bed with an actual mattress, ironic considering he enjoyed sleeping on the ceiling at times.

"-Peter!"

He whipped his head up so quickly he was surprised he didn't snap his neck in half. Everyone was looking at him with furrowed brows except MJ, who looked bored yet amused at his expense at the same time.

"Can you and Michelle wash the dishes, please?" Gwen continued now that Peter was actually paying attention.

"I can do them alone it's fine," Peter went to stand up from his seat but was stopped halfway.

"No, there are dishes from dinner and breakfast, it'll just be faster if one of you washes and one of you dries," Ned pointed out, gesturing towards the full bucket of dishes. Peter could only blame himself for making extra, considering he spilt mince everywhere the night before. Michelle also made extra because she refused to have meat anywhere near her or her food. 

“Alright,” Peter sighed and grabbed the bucket. “You coming?” 

MJ hummed and stood up, grabbing a tea towel and whipping Peter on the back of his legs with it. He jumped forward with a yelp and scowled at the smiling girl. Snatching the towel off her, he turned and walked to the campground kitchen. 

“Can I dry?” Michelle asked, taking the towel back, gently this time. 

“Do I have a choice?” Peter placed the bucket of dishes next to a spare sink. 

“Nope,” 

Unphased, he turned the hot water on and put the plug in. MJ squirted far too much soap into the water, which Peter almost commented on but bit his tongue instead. If he did that, May would’ve had a fit. 

The running water echoed through the empty kitchen and Peter drummed his fingers on the edge of the sink, staring in to and straight through the rising bubbles. Beside him, Michelle was swinging the tea towel around in circles, her head tilted to one side as if she was too lazy to even hold it up. 

When the water reached a level that Peter found satisfactory, he shut it off, standing up properly. Riffling through the bucket, he pulled out all the cutlery first, dumping them into the sink. 

Michelle knitted her brows together, her narrowed eyes tracking his hands as he spent far too long ignoring all the other dishes and only pulling out cutlery. Her mouth opened but she decided against saying anything, instead just watching him wash, waiting for something to be handed to her. 

They worked in silence, Peter washing them incredibly thoroughly before handing them to her one by one. Michelle placed them in the drying rack beside her, bopping up and down to the song she was singing in her head. 

Peter’s stomach clenched, like hunger pains mixed with butterflies, it was a feeling so strange he couldn’t quite understand it. His breath kept hitching in his throat, tripping over his tongue before stumbling into his lungs. 

The air between them was so, so heavy. Each of them were engulfed in their own bubble, being weighed down by nothing but themselves. Peter felt that even if he really wanted too, he wouldn’t be able to move an inch closer to her. If he did, his chest might split open from being pulled so tight. 

With a gulp, he handed her a now clean plate. He went to grab another one to clean but was brought to a halt when he caught a glimpse of the drying rack. There was a smaller plate in the middle of two larger plates, with a bowl placed on top of them rather awkwardly. 

“Uh- Michelle, can you fix the dishes, please?” He muttered, now grabbing another dirty plate. 

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” She stated after a quick look at the dry dishes. 

“The small plate is between the two big ones and the bowl looks like it’s going to fall,” 

“Who cares,” Michelle scoffed. 

“I do, can you just put them in order please,” Peter pursed his lips. 

“It literally doesn’t matter Peter, they're going back in that bucket in like, five minutes,” 

The boy clenched his jaw and tilted his head back, taking a deep breath before dropping the plate he was about to hand to MJ in the water. He flicked the water off his hands before leaning in front of Michelle to adjust the way the dishes had been stacked. 

When they were placed in a way Peter was happy with, he grabbed the plate back out from the sink and handed it to Michelle. MJ was visibly annoyed, finding his little show rather pointless and irritating. She placed the small plate behind the bigger plates, just to throw off the organisation and spite him. 

Peter sighed and closed his eyes. “MJ, please,” 

“What,” She snickered. “It’s just a drying rack,” 

“I don’t care, can you just put it in the right place,”

“Why?” 

“Because it’s fucking annoying me, Michelle, that’s why,” Peter snapped, whipping his head to look at her, the air blowing out of his nose and reminding MJ of an angry calf. 

“Alright, alright,” Her eyes widened and she sighed, moving the plate. 

“Thanks,” Peter muttered.

The air between them now had bricks stacked miles high placed on top of it. Peter’s jaw hurt from being clenched so hard, his teeth ground down to stumps. That, coupled with his stomach, made him want to fold in half and sink into the ground. The silence was more silent then it was before, it was deafening. 

Peter realised he needed a haircut. A strand of hair fell in front of his face, tickling his nose as it swayed back and forth. He huffed, blowing air out of his mouth in an attempt to push the hair away. It flew forward but came right back. He couldn’t use his hands because they were soaked in dirty water, he didn’t feel like putting that on his face. 

Michelle watched on in amusement as he used anything but his hand to try correct his hair. He went from using his breath to his shoulder to his elbow. She could feel him getting more and more annoyed, his body tensing and a low growl rumbling in his throat. 

Eventually, he gave up, continuing to wash the dishes with even more hair in his face now. His face scrunched up every time the strands brushed his nose. Peter bit back a sigh but no longer needed too when MJ pushed them back gently. 

Her hand ever so gently brushed the few curls back, her fingers going in slightly deeper to make sure his hair stayed put. Peter turned and looked at her, her eyes still focused on his hair before she brought her hand back down to her side. A delicate flush crept up his neck and onto his cheeks. 

A touch so tender from Michelle felt so alien. Unnatural, almost. He was used to bumps, pushes and clearly, punches. Peter couldn’t count the number of times he’d had an aggressive physical interaction with MJ, he’d assume one for every person in the world if he had too. An action like this, however, he could count that on one hand, with one finger. 

“Thanks,” Peter squeaked before clearing his throat. MJ shrugged and dried the last dish. 

Neither said anything else as they cleaned up, putting the dishes in the bucket neatly and draining the sink. Peter grabbed the damp towel, attempting to dry his hands with it. He cringed at his soggy hands, hating the feeling he was so familiar with. 

“Do you think Gwen made us do this so we would get out of the way?” Peter mused, walking next to Michelle with slow steps. 

“Obviously,” She scoffed, causing all the dishes to rattle. 

“I don’t want to walk back and have them be- doing stuff,” Peter scratched the back of his neck and his voice went quiet. 

“What? Sex?” MJ snickered. 

“Yeah, whatever,”

“Oh c’mon, you can not be scared of the word sex,”

“I am not scared of it,” Peter bluffed, the blush returning after only just fading. 

“Say it,” 

“Why,” 

“Say it, Parker,” 

“Why-” Peter was stopped by MJ standing in front of him, folding her arms over her chest and smiling annoyingly at him. “Michelle, C'mon,” 

“Say it,” 

“Alright, alright, fine,” Peter looked around quickly to make sure no one was around before whispering. “Sex,”

“That’s whispering,” Michelle rolled her eyes. “Say it. Sex,” 

“Sex,” He spoke slightly louder. 

“Sex,” She overpowered him, once again. “Louder,” 

“Sex,” 

“Sex!”

“Michelle!” Peter’s eyes widened and he looked around again. No one was around. 

MJ laughed, shaking her head. “I don’t get it, it’s just a word. Get over it, virgin,” 

“Don’t pretend that you’re not a virgin too,” Peter rolled his eyes, beginning to walk back to the campsite. 

“I’m not a virgin, I’m a half virgin,” 

“What?” 

“What,” 

His brows knitted together and the hesitation radiated off him. Peter narrowed his eyes, thinking hard about what that could possibly mean. He never knew with MJ, she never joked but she never told the truth either. So what did that mean? Peter stopped his chain of thought before he opened a door he knew he would never be able to close. 

“Anyway,” Michelle spoke up. “There’s nothing wrong with being a virgin. It’s a stupid social construct made by men to demean women. You don’t lose anything when you have sex for the first time and to think that’s true only adds to the increasingly negative stigma around human sexuality,” 

“So why do you claim to be a half virgin and also call me a virgin,” 

“Because most people feel more comfortable with the label and I wasn’t sure where you stood,” 

“Oh, well, I dunno I’ve never really thought about it,” 

“You don’t really think, at all, Parker,”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twitter @/lowqualtom  
> sorry this took so long to update not that anyone really cares but oh well. she’s fun a fresh also shout out to dua for the bomb ass help. :)

Thank the lord, Gwen and Ned weren’t going at it like rabbits when Michelle and Peter got back. Michelle placed the bucket of dishes on the table before retreating into the tent without another word. Peter watched her go, knowing she probably wasn’t going to emerge for a while. 

Peter grabbed the bucket and took it to the car, placing the clean dishes neatly into the box with the rest of the dishes they brought with them. After he was satisfied with the organisation of the utensils he went a sat back down on his camp chair, facing Gwen and Ned. He gave the two a small smile, clasping his hands in front of him. 

“How’s your guys’ morning?” Peter asked, raising his brows at the couple. 

“It’s good, the weather is supposed to be really nice today but Gwen and I were thinking we should just chill at the site today,” Ned nodded, gesturing to his girlfriend when he spoke about her. 

“Yeah,” Peter nodded. “That sounds good.” 

The couple resumed to talk within themselves and Peter gazed around the campground, not really noticing anything in particular. He squinted his eyes in the sun, bobbing his leg up and down. It was then Peter was reminded it was incredibly difficult for him to sit still and do nothing. 

He was just about to stand up from his seat to stretch his legs when Gwen interrupted him, shooting up from her own seat and pushing him back down. “No, no you can’t go I was just about to suggest an activity!” 

“An activity?” 

“Yeah! I was reading about bonding activities before we came and the website said we should draw each other?”

“Draw each other?” 

“Yes! It’ll be fun and it’s a way to get to know each other and stuff.” 

“I look at you guys all day everyday, do we really need to draw each other?” 

“Yes,” Gwen stated very matter-of-factly. 

Peter sighed, but dragged his chair closer to Ned, who was watching Gwen attempt to drag MJ out of the tent. As much as he hated that fact that Gwen and Ned were, that, couple, he also couldn’t help but admire that they enjoyed the other person so much that they were that couple. 

MJ stumbled out of the tent, again, her foot catching on the lip of the tent door. She cleared her throat and flicked her hair back, attempting to look nonchalant about the mistake. Peter bit back a smile but looked away when Michelle glared at him. 

She sat down on a chair facing Peter and Gwen sat down next to her, facing Ned. Peter gave the girl in front of him a tight-lipped smile, which she did not return. Michelle sighed, “I was told we were doing a Peter roast, should I start?” 

“What?” Peter knitted his brows together, looking at Gwen. 

“I had to get her out of the tent somehow!” The blonde raised her hands in defence. 

“So we aren’t roasting Peter?” She sounded even more bored than she was before if that was even possible. 

 

“No-” 

“Why would you tell her you're roasting me?”

“-We’re drawing each other!” 

Gwen handed MJ and Peter a piece of paper and a pencil each, before dragging the table between each pair for them to lean on. Peter already knew MJ would be done in a matter of minutes, she’d slam her pencil on the table and return to the tent without another word. Peter already knew she would make fun of anything mark he made on the paper, even if he didn’t make any at all. So he took a deep breath and sucked it up. 

He picked up the pencil, holding it wrong as his elementary school teachers had slammed into his head. Michelle picked it up too, holding it exactly the same as him, a small detail Peter shoved into the back of his mind under the folder ‘Michelle.’ 

Before starting, he took one more good look at her. As much as Peter hated this idea he was still going to give it his best shot, seeing as Ned and Gwen had seemed so excited for it. 

If he was honest, she looked exactly the same as she did everyday. She looked at the same at school, when they studied in the library, at lunch, at homecoming and junior prom. Actually, that was lie. 

The closer he looked he noticed how much older she looked now. When he first ‘met’ Michelle, her face was much rounder, still having some baby fat left over in her cheeks. Peter uses the term met lightly, they never really had an official introduction. They learnt each others names from hearing other people talk to them. Michelle learnt about Peter by watching, Peter learnt about Michelle through the books she read. Whenever he saw a new book, which was just about everyday, he would google it on his phone and read the summary. 

They became ‘friends’ through her sitting down the end of his and Ned’s table in the cafeteria. Through random quips and eavesdropped conversations. Eventually, the quips turned into two minutes conversations and when Ned and Gwen started dating, Gwen was far too much of a conversationalist for MJ to ignore. Hence, the incredibly dysfunctional group was ‘formed.’

The day she found out Peter was Spider-Man was one neither were likely to forget. Peter was doing his rounds after-school, as per. He’d forgotten to get a sandwich from Delmar’s before suiting up but found no harm in dropping in quickly. So he swung by and placed his order, going into a random isle to pass time. 

“Don’t like the bread being squished down real flat anymore, Peter?” 

“Yeah, no I only ask for that be-” The eyes on his suit squeaked as they widened, he turned around quickly to see Michelle standing behind him, a bottle of milk in her hands. He cleared his throat and put on a thick, terribly obvious fake accent, “I mean, uh, who’s Peter?” 

“Ok, Parker, can’t believe you like pickles by the way, gross.” 

Peter sighed, it was Michelle, nothing gets past her. 

“Don’t tell anyone, please.” 

“You and I both know I’ve got no one to tell.”

Peter remembered his very limited amount of art lessons, start with the shape of the face. He seemed to recall his teacher saying it was an upside-down egg. He furrowed his brows, Michelle’s face was not an upside-down egg. Her jaw was sharper than that, more square. The side of her face dipped a little where the hollows of her cheek were. 

His pencil made random movements in the air, too scared to actually touch the paper, part of him was also a little worried he’d break the lead just from putting it down. With tight lungs, he made the first stroke, drawing an upside-down egg. 

As much as Peter was a messy person, he was also very particular about certain things, like how the dishes were stacked. In fact, it was the reason he was late a lot. His room may be a mess with clothes all over the floor but it the books or the posters on his walls were crooked, he’d spend as much time as it took for him to get them straight. Usually, that meant a lot of time because Peter was not familiar with the term ‘take your time.’ Everything he did, had to be be done as soon as possible. 

However, today he reminded himself that he could spend hours on this if he really wanted too. They were camping, no one needed to be saved by Spider-Man around her. Maybe someone did in New York and as much as he felt guilty about it, Tony had reassured him multiple times that they would be just fine without him for a few days. 

So Peter took his time. 

Occasionally, a single curse word was muttered under his breath. His eyebrows had been furrowed tightly together the entire time he’d been drawing, forming small crinkles on his forehead. Peter’s lips were downturned in a small frown, his bottom lip being caught between his teeth every now and then. Michelle drank it all in. 

Not that she’d ever tell anyone, but this wasn’t her first time drawing Peter. In fact, she would consider herself on expert on Peter’s face. Not that she liked his face or anything. She admired how expressive it was. That was the thing about Peter, he could try to hide as much as he wanted but his face told her all she needed to know. 

Peter wasn’t a typically angry person but when he was, his jaw was clenched so tightly Michelle was surprised he hadn’t broken it. His eyes would narrow and a small vein in his neck would pop out ever so slightly. It was Michelle’s favourite expression of his. 

She remembered how he used to look at Liz. The infatuation would make itself clear through the parting of his lips and his doe-eyes. However, it was the same way he used to look at LEGO, or Ned’s Star-Wars memorabilia collection. That’s how she knew it was real, that Liz was simply an enigma to ogle at. 

Peter was an open book and everyone knew Michelle loved to read. 

He was taking forever. Michelle respected that though, she knew drawing didn’t come easily to everyone and she could tell he really was trying his best. She had finished a while ago but no one else had, so she pretended to keep going. It wasn’t her best work but for a casual ‘bonding’ activity, it worked just fine. 

She could tell Peter was done when he sat up straight, wincing hoe tense his back was from being bent over from so long. He held the paper up, his eyes flickering from the drawing to MJ. He cringed a little bit but huffed air out his nose, reluctantly accepting what he’d just drawn. 

He looked over at Ned’s drawing and no offence, it was worse than Peter’s. If he were Gwen, he’d be offended. However, he wasn’t Gwen and he knew that she would treasure his drawing of her as if it were the Mona Lisa. 

With a boost of confidence thanks to Ned, he locked eyes with Michelle, who had her brows raised in expectation. “Finished?” 

He cleared his throat and nodded, slumping in his seat. “You know I’m not a prolific drawer so please be nice to me.” 

Michelle swallowed her smile and managed to maintain her unbothered facade. “Slide them over to each other?” 

Peter nodded and slid it face down along the table, waiting for her to do the same. Michelle slid hers over, face down as well. They nodded at each other before picking up their respective drawings. 

Michelle hadn’t looked at hers yet, she was watching Peter in order to gauge his reaction. His eyes widened and narrowed, his jaw clenching and unclenching before finally looking up at MJ. “This is really good,” He spoke softly, his eyes matching the tone of his voice. 

Michelle shrugged but gave a small smile. 

“How did you even get this done so quick?” 

“It’s been nearly three hours.”

“Oh,” Peter blushed and cleared his throat, now dreading Michelle looking at his drawing even more. “Well um, it’s really really good. You’re really- good.” 

“I know,” She spoke as she lifted up Peter’s drawing of her. 

 

She looked between him and the drawing, her eyebrows raising in surprise. It wasn’t amazing, but she was pleasantly surprised. Peter was rubbing the back of his neck, his cheeks now a bright cherry red and he refused to make eye contact with her. 

“It’s good.” 

 

‘It is?” The doe-eyes returned as he finally looked up at her. 

“I mean, it’s alright,” Michelle shrugged, looking at it again. “My eyes are too far apart and my nose is a bit big and my drawing is better but yeah it’s not bad,” 

“Oh,” Peter mumbled. “Thanks?” 

In the drawing she looked, content. It was strange, Michelle never really felt content herself. Was this how Peter saw her? Her eyes traced every line, she could see where he’d furiously erased mistakes he made over and over again. Peter had clearly attempted a tiny bit of shading but decided it wasn’t quite working out so he didn’t continue doing it. 

Her mouth wasn’t drawn in her usual frown, her eyes not narrowed and glaring. The way he’d drawn her eyes reminded her of how she viewed Peter’s. Sure, Peter had drawn MJ with no real emotion on her face but drawing Michelle was not the same as real life Michelle. 

Real life Michelle came across as cold and calculating, someone who a lot of people wouldn’t pick as a first choice of friend. 

Drawing Michelle looked open, friendly. She wasn’t smiling but she didn’t have a face that said ‘stay away from me.’ She wasn’t sure which she preferred, she liked the aura she gave off because that way, no one even attempted to get through to her. Drawing Michelle looked like she had… emotions. 

Peter was confused by his drawing, at no point today did he remember smiling so wide. Yet, Michelle has drawn him with the widest grin on his face. It looked natural, real. Michelle had captured the moment with her eyes and slapped it right on to paper but Peter wasn’t sure when she’d captured it. 

Peter thought she would’ve drawn him looking like some kind of fool. Maybe upside down with his mask off, hair flopping and veins popping out of his forehead. He thought she would’ve drawn him as ugly as possible, maybe even crying or frustrated, like the face he’d been pulling for the whole past three hours. 

He was confused, but he also wasn’t complaining. Maybe she’d taken note of him when he laughed at a couple of terrible jokes Ned had cracked, or when Betty leaned too far back in her chair she almost toppled over. 

Maybe he should stop questioning it. Maybe, he should let himself enjoy the drawing and appreciate the artist, more than he already had been while drawing her. 

Both of them snapped back into reality at the high pitch squeal coming from Gwen. She was clutching what they assumed to be Ned’s drawing in her hand with the widest smile Peter had ever seen. 

Michelle quirked a brow and rubbed her ears, wincing and putting emphasis on Gwen’s squeal. Peter was the one who felt it more than all of them though, yet the most he did was cringe and that was hardly from his sensitive hearing. 

Peter and Michelle looked at each other and shrugged. He smiled small, “I guess Ned is a better artist than both of us.” 

“I’m still better than you.” 

“Ok, MJ.”


	4. Chapter 4

Peter had to admit, camping wasn’t so bad. He’d called May seven times for various different reasons, calling her and asking for cooking advice probably wasn’t his best idea. No one had lunch that day. Except for MJ, who laughed in all their meat-eating faces with her salad. 

Gwen had finally decided to stop clinging so tightly onto Ned’s arm, leaving Peter to spend time with his best friend. It turned out, he was quite relaxed with just his best friends and away from all the drama Spider-Man brought into his life. Peter liked Gwen, obviously, but he did miss how much time he used to spend with Ned. Gwen being around meant that he had to share, which he didn’t mind, Peter understood but he missed his friend. 

They all made dinner together and the sun was just beginning to get lower in the sky. Peter and MJ actually got along, they smiled at each other, they laughed together. Weird, but neither were all that mad about it. MJ made a couple of remarks about how they were all going to get heart disease and die from eating meat but for once, Peter didn’t reply by saying she was probably going to pass out any second from lack of iron. Although, MJ would always say that standing up too quickly while iron deficient was better than any drug. 

Now he was taking a much-needed and much-wanted shower, using six quarters in the process. Peter was still mad he had to pay for what he felt was a basic human right. Whatever, it wasn’t like May didn’t give him money for it. The hot water ran down his body and he’d never felt anything so good. It wasn’t like he had gone a long stretch of time without a shower it was just the fact he felt limited because of the payment that it was almost like a luxury. 

Even while walking back to the tent, there was something about the crisp air against his warm skin that was strangely comforting to him. It was his first time outside of New York in a very very long time and everything was so foreign to Peter, yet he somehow felt like it was where he was meant to be in that moment in time. 

By the time he’d put all his things away and hung his towel over their makeshift washing line (that was falling lower and lower each minute) the sun had pretty much set and was only just peeking over the horizon. 

MJ was sitting in one of the camp chairs, a blanket draped over her lap while she read another book. Peter took a seat next to her and looked out at the sunset. 

After a few minutes, Peter got bored, again. He looked over at Michelle, who he wasn’t even sure if she’d seen him sit down. “Where’s Gwen and Ned?” 

“They said they were going for a walk.” 

“Oh,” Peter furrowed his brows. “It’s starting to get dark, how long have they been gone for?” 

“I dunno,” MJ sighed. “thirty or forty-five minutes maybe?”

Peter nodded, still feeling a little unnerved by the fact they went alone just before it was about to get dark. What if they got eaten by a bear or something? He fiddled with a nano-tech device Tony had given him when Peter had expressed his worries about getting bored while camping. It was a fidget cube of sorts, comparable to a Rubix Cube. It actually helped Peter a lot with his fidgeting problem and the fact he always felt the need to be doing something.

The ball of roots in his stomach was growing, snaking up his body and into his throat, different limbs reaching into his guts and squeezing. Peter didn’t like this feeling, not one bit. His heart was beating faster, louder, harder. His lungs went into double time as if Peter was in space and struggling to breathe. He’d been there once before and didn’t exactly plan on going back any time soon. 

MJ noticed his body growing anxious and raised a brow at him, looking away from her book for once. She watched as his fingers fiddled with whatever thing he held in his hands. His fiddling was getting faster, his fingers slipping more and more. MJ watched his chest rise and fall rapidly and could almost feel the nerves radiating off him.

“How long have they been gone?” Peter squeaked, not looking at her. 

“Uh,” MJ checked her phone. “Nearly two hours now I think.” 

“It’s dark now.” 

“Thanks, Sherlock.” It was dark now, their only light source was a small camping lantern on the middle of the table in front of them.

“It’s cold too,” Peter looked up at her. “They should really be back by now.” 

“Why don’t you call them, then?”

He nodded and got his phone out, calling Ned. His foot tapped on the ground as the ringing kept going for what felt like an eternity. Ned never picked up. Peter rang again, the same thing happened. Now he was scared, not just anxious, scared. 

Ned always picked up, always. 

Peter stood up from the chair and sent multiple texts to Ned, all of which went unreplied as he paced back and forth in front of the table. He tried calling Gwen too, only for the same thing to happen. He slapped his phone in his hand over and over, trying to convince himself everything was fine and he just needed to calm down. 

But Peter trusted his gut, he knew something wasn’t quite right but this time there was nothing he could do about it. How was he supposed to know where they were? The campsite was huge and not to mention all the different walking trails they could’ve gone on. He had his spider-sense but he wasn’t a psychic. 

“Michelle, something doesn’t feel right.” He stopped pacing and looked at her with wide, panicked eyes. 

“What do you mean?” Michelle asked, knowing that if Peter felt something was off, it probably was. 

“Neither of them are picking up their phone, it’s dark, we’re in a place we don’t know, something is wrong and I don’t know what to do.” 

“Peter,” Michelle bit down on her lips, sucking in her cheeks. She wasn’t one to lie, the whole situation was a bit sketchy even to her. “Give them another 15 minutes and if they don’t call back or text or anything then we’ll go look for them? Ok?” 

Peter nodded and sat back down in his chair, his leg bobbing up and down. The next few minutes felt like an eternity. He checked his phone every few seconds to see if something came up, nothing ever did. 

Michelle even found herself checking her own phone every now and then. In fact, she was finding it harder and harder to focus on her book. Not to mention, Peter being nervous made her nervous and she knew that if she showed any sign of nerves, he would get even more nervous.

After twenty minutes, the sun was well and truly set, the stars coming out to say a hello that Peter did not want to hear. He tried calling both his missing friends one last time before he stood up and grabbed a torch. “You have to come with me.” 

Michelle shrugged, knowing that it was probably for the best they stuck together. She stood up and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, grabbing the lantern. Peter walked frantically off in the direction MJ pointed in, seemingly on the most important mission of his life. 

“Peter-” Michelle huffed but cleared her voice and softened it at the worried glare he shot her. “Let’s slow down, getting worked up is going to make it harder for everyone.” 

Peter sighed but Michelle was always right, always the voice of reason. So, he took a deep breath and slowed everything down. They walked side by side in silence, both checking their phones every few minutes just in case. 

Michelle had never seen him like this before, so worried. She watched the way his jaw clenched and unclenched periodically and his head whipped around violently at the tiniest noise (and others that she probably couldn’t hear herself.) Sure, she knew he was Spider-Man so he had an annoyingly great moral compass but she’d never seen him in any form of ‘action.’

The Peter she saw the most was lazy, nerdy, a bit stupid at times. This Peter was alert, brave, he had something to do and he was going to do it. Michelle had never seen such determination behind his eyes. Everyone knew Peter cared about people, perhaps a little too much at times but it was only now, that she really acknowledged how deeply Peter cared about his friends specifically. She felt as if even she was in trouble, the girl who never stopped bickering with him, he would go to the ends of the Earth for her.

Michelle shivered a little and tugged the blanket around her tighter, snuggling her face into the fabric. Peter looked at her, a damp curl flopping into his face. “Are you cold?” 

“A little.” 

“Do you want my jumper?” 

“No, Peter, it’s fine.” Michelle looked up at him and gave a tight-lipped smile. 

“Well,” Peter looked down at the ground and attempted to blow the hair out of his face. “When we find our friends and get back we’ll make a fire and have hot chocolate.” 

“Sound’s good.” She replied and once again, pushed Peter’s hair out of his face for him. Peter blushed and looked to the other side before his brain reminded him he was supposed to be panicking. 

His breathing hitched and he checked his phone once more, seriously considering if he should call Tony. Iron Man would know what to do, surely. He was a superhero too after all. Then again, so was Peter, so how come Peter didn’t know what to do? If only he had Karen with him. Although, Peter had Michelle, which was close enough. 

He was just about to call Tony when his phone flashed with an incoming call. The name Gwen was just about screaming at him. Peter fumbled as he answered the phone and pressed it to his ear with a hurried ‘hello’ tumbling from his mouth. 

Both teenagers stopped walking and Michelle motioned for him to put it on speaker, which he did. 

“Hello? Peter?” Gwen asked through the phone, her voice wavering with a tint of fright. 

“Gwen? Where are you guys? It’s dark and you’ve been gone for ages,” Peter rushed but started to get angry, his voice becoming louder and his brows furrowed. “Michelle and I have been looking for you guys and I’ve scared shitless, you-you can’t just go on walks without us in a place we don’t know! It- it’s not safe!” 

“I know, Peter, I know.” Gwen stuttered, Michelle could tell she was probably a little freaked out by Peter, who never yelled. “B-but Ned and I, we wanted to drink and we know you and MJ don’t drink so you might not be happy about it, so we didn’t say anything.” 

“Gwen-” 

“Peter, Ned is really drunk and I don’t know what to do, we need you, I’m not exactly sober either.” 

“Where are you guys.” 

Gwen gave them a set of really bad instructions but luckily they hadn’t seemed to stray too far off the track. Peter stayed on the phone with them as he walked with Michelle. He really wished he had his web shooters at that moment but it wasn’t like he’d be able to do anything with them anyway. There were barely even any trees around. 

Eventually, Michelle pointed out two figures sitting down on a park bench not far down the track. Peter picked up his pace into a jog, leaving Michelle behind. He hung up the phone on Gwen when he got there. There was an empty bottle of vodka at their feet and a sniffling Gwen with an almost unconscious Ned on her shoulder. 

“You two drank that whole thing?” Peter picked it up and couldn’t help but gape at the fact they’d split that much alcohol between the two of them.

“Well,” Gwen wiped her nose and looked at Peter. “He had most of it.” 

Michelle eventually walked up to them and sighed. Peter wrapped an arm around Ned and hoisted him to his feet almost effortlessly. Ned mumbled something but Peter ignored it, wrapping Ned’s arm around his shoulders. “I can not believe you two drank that entire thing by yourselves out here.” 

“I know, I’m sorry we just-” Gwen started crying too much to continue her explanation. Michelle wrapped an arm around her friend's waist and pushed her in the direction of the campsite. 

“That’s so much alcohol, it could probably get me drunk,” It couldn’t, Peter knew that, he was just trying to make them realise they were idiots. His voice was tense and his jaw was clenched as he began to support Ned and walk back. “You know Michelle and I wouldn’t have been mad. If you wanted to drink you should’ve just said.” 

“M’sorry, Peter,” Ned muttered and flopped his head onto Peter’s shoulder. Peter sighed and shook his head, looking at the ground. 

Peter was mad, to put it bluntly. Michelle could tell by the way he was ignoring Ned’s stupid mumbles and telling him to pick his own feet up. She could tell by the way Peter ignored eye contact with anyone and focused on getting Ned back to the safety of the campsite. 

The walk back took much longer than the walk there. They were walking slower due to their drunk counterparts and Peter’s lack of anxiety which had turned to anger. Peter held the torch in his mouth while Michelle walked in front with Gwen, the blanket now around Gwen’s shoulders. 

Peter saw Michelle shiver violently a couple times and felt bad, but there was really nothing he could do. If he could stop and give her his jumper he would, but he couldn’t. Not with Ned on him. 

When they eventually got back, he put Ned down in a chair, which he had to catch before it fell over. Michelle sat Gwen down in a chair next to Ned, looking over at Peter. 

He grabbed two water bottles and gave one to Gwen, who thanked him before drinking the whole thing. Ned was a different story, he could barely walk so Peter had to kneel next to him and help him drink from the bottle. 

Michelle opened a bag of potato chips and handed them to Gwen, watching Peter looking after Ned. She rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself up but decided to start building a fire instead. 

Peter still hadn’t said a single word since walking back. Instead, he looked over at the shivering Michelle and stripped himself of his sweater before handing it to her. She looked up at him and raised a brow but took it anyway. 

Ned eventually was okay enough to lie down in his tent, Peter was slightly confident that Ned wouldn’t throw up but he knew he was going to have one hell of a morning. That wasn’t Peter’s problem. 

Gwen went and joined Ned in their tent, taking the bag of chips with her. 

Sighing, he sat down next to Michelle in front of the crackling fire. He ran a hand through his hair and pursed his lips. Ned told him everything, so why wouldn’t he tell Peter something as trivial as this? 

He couldn’t quite understand why the couple had lied and decided it was best to sneak around Michelle and Peter’s backs, clearly it didn’t end up great for anyone. 

His eyes went out of focus as he stared off into space, the orange and red of the flame taking up his vision. Since he’d given his sweater to Michelle, he’d been freezing while looking after Ned so he was incredibly grateful for the heat wafting off the flames.

Michelle watched him space out for a while before nudging her knee into his. He looked at her and smiled small, which was the less Peter Parker smile Michelle had ever seen. She pushed his hair back, again, not that it even needed to be pushed back.

Peter cleared his throat and looked at anywhere besides Michelle’s face, his jaw still clenching and unclenching. 

“Thanks for the jumper.” 

“Yeah,” He shrugged. “It’s ok, you needed it more than me.” 

“I didn’t really but thanks anyway.” 

Neither spoke for a few minutes. 

“Let’s hope Ned doesn’t shit himself tonight.” 

“Yeah,” Peter laughed lightly. “Me too, that’s the one thing I will not be cleaning up under any circumstances.” 

Peter let the ghost of his laugh sit on his face for a while but ended up sighing and leaning his head on his hand. He rubbed the side of his face with furrowed brows before continuing to stare into the dancing flames once again. 

Michelle’s phone told her it was just past midnight so she stood up, Peter’s jumper sitting higher on her body than any of hers but still being far too baggy for her small stature. Peter looked up at her, admiring the way she glowed in the light of the dwindling fire. 

She brushed the grass off her pants and flicked her hair out of her face. Michelle stalked off to the tent. “I’m gonna go to bed, make sure you put the fire out.” 

Peter listened to the zip open and close before he heard her flop onto the deflated mattress and get under the covers. After a few minutes, he found himself bored, even though nothing had really changed since Michelle left. It was almost as if she’d taken all the life out of the night with her when she went to bed. 

The stars were still there and the fire was still going but it was like they’d packed up and gone to bed too. 

In the tent, Michelle had the lantern going and was drawing in her journal. Right next to the drawing of her Peter had done, which she’d slotted into her journal, she was drawing him again. She used the memory of his for once, almost blank face as he stared into the fire. It was an expression she’d never seen and one she was finding difficult to read. Michelle never found anything difficult to read. 

Sure, he was angry, in a worried way. But it was more than that and she could quite put her finger on it. Which, if she was honest, really, really annoyed her. She snapped her book shut quickly, her pencil being caught between the pages when she heard the tent’s zipper start to be undone. 

Peter gave her a small smile as he crawled in before stripping his shirt and pants off without a single ounce of hesitation. The boy got under the covers and relaxed into the comfort of them, his eyes closing almost immediately. Michelle could see his body release the tension of the past few hours as his chest deflated and back muscles relaxed. 

Huffing, Michelle grabbed his discarded clothes and folded them before reaching over him and placing them on top of his bag. She would not allow this tent to get even an ounce messy because for one, it would drive her crazy and secondly, she knew that once it got messy it would only get worse and make it harder to pack when they left. 

The silence in the tent was broken by Peter’s quiet, raspy voice.

“Goodnight, MJ.” 

“Night, Parker.”

With that, Michelle flicked the lantern off and settled into the bed. Her lower back slightly brushed Peters, and her hair was tickling the back of his neck, but neither had a very strong desire to move away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this started shit and got shittier as it went on but whatever, people were asking for it so I gave it to them. let me know what you think about the chapter/story so far or what you want/think is gonna happen? idk man. my twitter as always, is @/lowqualtom


	5. Chapter 5

Michelle was woken rather abruptly from the amount of movement going on over on the other side of the tent. She looked over to see Peter facing towards her, his brows knitted together tightly and his arms wrapped around his torso so tightly she thought his biceps might explode. 

She wasn’t stupid, she knew he was having a nightmare. A bad one at that, judging by the amount of whimpers escaping his mouth. As bad as she felt, she remembered once reading that you should wake up someone from a nightmare, so she didn’t. 

Peter looked like he was in pain, so much physical and emotional pain and Michelle felt it too. She felt like she’d been stabbed in the stomach and the knife was being twisted around and around. If she was feeling this kind of second-hand pain, she couldn’t imagine having it first hand. 

She gulped while she watched, feeling as if she was invading his privacy. Her heart dropped as she watched his hair get matted to his forehead with sweat and eventually, a tear roll down his cheek. Michelle had never seen him cry. She wasn’t quite sure if sleep crying was the same as real crying but the situation seemed enough for anyone to cry, even if she didn’t know what he was dreaming about. 

His breathing picked up until it was so fast, MJ was sure he might combust. With one last final gasp, he sat up, his eyes wide open. Michelle squeezed her eyes shut and felt his own burning into the side of her face, she peered through her eyelashes and watched him hunch over. 

The boy held his head in his hands and his knees to his chest. He remembered what May use to tell him, to count through the periodic table with each breath. It was nerdy and he’d never tell anyone that’s what he did, but it worked. His breathing was shaky as he ran his hands over his face and through his hair, grimacing at the feeling of sweat on his fingers. Peter swallowed the lump in his throat and pulled a sweater on. It was gross, the fabric clinging to the sweat but he knew he would freeze if he didn’t put one on. 

Michelle nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt her hand be lifted into the air. Peter was holding her hand in both of his, his finger tracing the different bones and veins as if to make sure she was actually there. She listened to his breathing go from large, deep ones, to somewhat normal again. It took everything in her to stop her finger from twitching and to remain limp, not wanting him to know she was awake. 

She heard him leave the tent, she didn’t blame him. It wasn’t exactly a big space and was stuffy even at the best of times. The air was probably thicker than a bowl of oatmeal in there. Michelle took a deep breath herself and checked her phone, wincing at the sudden brightness. It was just about to hit 4 am, so they’d only been asleep maybe three or so hours. She forced herself to stay awake for a while, but after realising he probably wasn’t going to come back, got out of the tent. 

Peter was sat in front of the dying embers that remained from their small fire. His eyes were closed and his head rested in the palm of his hand. He’d never felt so grateful to be outside before, the outside air might be biting his skin but it was soothing as he breathed in and out. 

Michelle stood outside the tent, Peter’s blanket in her hands. She gulped herself, suddenly feeling rather nervous as she worked up the guts to walk over to him. Michelle sat down next to him, the whole situation feeling far too familiar to mere hours ago. 

“Um,” She extended the blanket out to him, whispering. “I thought you might be cold.”

Peter didn’t reply, just took the blanket and draped it over his lap, fiddling with a loose thread. Michelle, still wearing his other sweater, tugged at the sleeves and looked from him to the ground, not quite sure what she was supposed to do next. 

“Are you okay?” She finally decided on asking. 

“Fine,” Peter muttered, still not looking at her. 

Michelle nodded and bit the inside of her cheek, pushing her hair out of her face. She wasn’t quite sure what to do or how to feel. She wanted him to talk to her, she wanted to help but at the same time, she didn’t want to pry. As well as that, it wasn’t like her and Peter were exactly friends. Were they? 

“Are you su-” 

“I’m fine.” Peter cut her off, his voice harsh and spiteful. It cut through the air, slicing Michelle right where it hurt. He was looking at her now, his eyes dark. 

MJ gave him the tightest smile she’d ever given anyway and stood up, brushing off the back of her legs. Not another word was spoken as Michelle returned to the tent, the sound of the zipper echoing through the emptiness. 

She down the growing frustration and closed her eyes, curling to a ball under her duvet in an attempt to calm herself down. Michelle had no idea why it bothered her so much, it’s not like she didn’t know he wouldn’t tell her but there was a part of her that hoped he would. There was a part of her that hated seeing Peter like that. 

The idea of Peter being in a bad mood was not one she was used to but had gotten to see more than she probably would’ve liked in the short span of time. She didn’t like it. Peter wasn’t supposed to be upset in any way, shape or form. Peter was supposed to be awkward, happy go lucky, freaks out over damn Lego Peter. Not whatever this was. 

But whatever, it wasn’t her problem. Why did it feel like it was? 

Peter didn’t return to the tent at all. Michelle exited the tent in the morning to find him still sitting in front of the fire, wrapped in the blanket with his headphones in, eyes wide open. She grabbed two pieces of bread before she went to the campground kitchen and shoved them in the toaster. 

She wasn’t quite sure why she was angry. All she knew is that she was, and it was Peter’s fault. So towards Peter is where she’d aim it. Also towards her poor toast that she all but stabbed with a butter-slathered knife. Angry bites were torn out of the food as she walked back to the campsite and sat in a camp chair, staring out at the horizon. 

He didn’t move an inch for a very long time, Michelle kept track by how much of her book she had read and how much warmer the day got. By the time Peter just shrugged the blanket off, it was rather warm and she’d read two and a quarter chapters of her book. Not that she cared. 

Gwen tumbled out of her tent soon after, wincing at the sunlight. Michelle quirked a brow up at her. Gwen whined and walked over to Michelle, her hair sticking up in all sorts of directions she didn’t even know existed. A clear indication of a restless night. She was still in the clothes from yesterday, her shirt and skirt skewed to the side awkwardly. 

The blonde flopped into a chair and slammed her head into the table. That wasn’t one of her best ideas, her pounding headache only beginning to feel like someone taking a hammer to her fragile skull every second. Another whine escaped her mouth and a hand came up to cup the front of her head. Michelle rolled her eyes and went back to her book. 

“This is why I don’t drink. You two are stupid.” 

“Yeah,” Gwen scoffed. “Thank you, MJ, for your kind words.” 

“Was I wrong?” Michelle fired back. 

“Jeez,” Gwen frowned at her friend's dark tone. “What called up your ass and died?” 

Michelle narrowed her eyes, swallowing angry words, glaring at Gwen before returning to her book. Books were better than people and always would be. Books didn’t call Michelle a bitch at ten in the morning. Books were her friends. Most of the time. 

Ned didn’t wake up until an hour later. By that time, Michelle was about halfway through her book and Peter had made his way into the shower. Gwen has also gotten into a shower and both had come out cleaner, but still looking rough. 

He obviously felt disgusting, as anyone would, but managed to pick himself up after some food and water. 

The sun was high in the sky by the time Gwen suggested they all go a hike, in an attempt to ease the tension, enjoy the day, and freshen up after the events of last night. 

Neither Peter or Michelle felt like arguing so they agreed. They took turns getting changed in the tent, still not exchanging any words. For different reasons, however, MJ being too annoyed and Peter being too tired.

“Hey Man,” Ned walked up to Peter as they began to leave for their walk, a small smile on his face. “I’m really sorry about last night.” 

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” Peter nodded and put a hand on his shoulder. 

“Gwen said you were pretty upset so- yeah.” 

“No, it’s okay. I just don’t get why you guys decided to sneak around when we would’ve been totally fine with it.” 

“It made it more fun.” Ned shrugged, a small smile on his face. Peter rolled his eyes but laughed, shaking his head and shoving his friend's shoulder. 

Peter and Ned returned back to their normal ways, Peter’s previous frustration slowly melting away in the midday heat. They carried a normal conversation on through the woods, Gwen and MJ walking in front of them. Well, Ned did most of the talking and Peter just listened, giving small reactions and answers where they were needed. 

Eventually, Ned decided he missed Gwen, so he ditched Peter and walked up to his girlfriend. Peter understood, he was used to sharing by now. Michelle was forced to start trailing behind the couple, walking just in front of Peter. 

He watched her back move side to side and her hair sway with the movement. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her with her hair down, it was always tied up, except for her fringe of course. Peter wondered what she’d look like with it down, a made-up image burning into his mind. 

Shaking his head and the image out at the same time, he turned his focus to the hike. They’d been walking uphill for at least close to an hour now. It wasn’t too bad of a walk and it wasn’t like he hadn’t scaled literally verticle heights before, the Washington Monument being his least favourite of all. 

Maybe it was just him, but the sun felt as if this was the hottest it had been since they had been there. He knew was probably going to turn beet red and May would be mad, but oh well. Thank God for the slight breeze that brushed past him and through the trees gently, it supplied some kind of cooling effect but he still longed for more. Peter was sweating in just his shirt and shorts, he had no idea how in the hell MJ was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. He jogged to catch up with her. 

“It’s pretty hot today, right?” He laughed awkwardly. 

“It’s literally the middle of July.” Michelle snapped, wiping the tiniest of smiles from Peter’s face. 

“Well-” He squeaked and cleared his throat. “Yeah.” 

Michelle didn’t say anything. 

“That’s Joan of Arc, right? On your shirt.” 

“So you do pay attention in history.” 

“Well, I don’t know what she did but-” 

“Well, she did a lot more than swinging from buildings in spandex and accuse people of trying to steal their own cars.” She cut him off without hesitation, still staring directly in front of her. 

“That was one time,” Peter murmured and bit back a sigh. Michelle either didn’t hear or didn’t care, because there was no reply. 

“Guys, look!” Gwen’s voice was somehow still overly enthusiastic considering the events of the night before. “Can we go swimming?” 

The group followed her extended arm to find a lake not far off from the track. Gwen didn’t wait for any sort of answer to her question before all but running to the water. Ned followed after ecstatically and MJ followed, more lethargic than the other two but still kept up. 

Peter, however, was not so convinced. He’d grown up with May not even letting him go to public swimming pools in fear of him contracting some kind of deathly disease. God knows what kind of bacteria a damn lake carried. He bit the inside of his cheek and trudged over to the water that Ned and Gwen had already dived into after ridding their bodies of their clothes. 

He watched as MJ kicked her shoes off before grabbing her shirt from the bottom and yanking it off. Obviously, their little dip wasn’t planned so she was left in a plain black sports bra.

Peter was a teenage boy, he had hormones, he found himself attracted to girls, so sue him for not being able to look away as she kicked her pants off. He scanned her up and down, a lump forming in his throat with a pounding heart as she tied her hair up into a bun on top of her head. 

Michelle glared at him again, putting her hands on her hips. Peter blushed and looked up into the trees, attempting and failing at pretending like he wasn’t watching her. His arms folded over his chest and he cleared his throat awkwardly before Ned yelled at him. 

“Peter! Are you getting in or what?” His voice was full of joy as beads of water rolled off his body. 

“Oh, nah, I’m good.” Peter shook his head, his nose scrunching up. 

“C’mon, the water’s really nice!” Gwen added and Ned shouted words of encouragement. 

“Well, you know, it’s probably full of all sorts of bugs. Who knows what kind of animal excretion is in there?” 

“You say that as if you’re literally not part spider.” MJ deadpanned, tilting her head to the side. Peter had to look away from her again when she did that, not wanting her to see the red crawling up his neck. 

“Well, spiders are arachnids which are not technically considered bugs, so... ” Peter trailed off while staring into the water. 

“Nerd.” 

“You say that as if you don’t go through a book a day.” 

“I’m not a nerd, I’m educated. You like Star Wars and Lego, nerd.” 

“At least I have hobbies and interests outside of- whatever, shut up, MJ.” 

“It’s Michelle, only my friends call me MJ.” 

Peter was visibly taken aback. He raised his brows and clenched his jaw before kicking his shoes off and pulling his shirt off from the neck. As pissed off as she was, she wasn’t going to deny herself the simple pleasure of looking at a rather nice set of abs. 

She wasn’t one to objectify people, but if a beautiful v-line put itself out on show, she wasn’t going to look away. Peter tossed his shirt to the side, looking into the water. Well, looking at Ned and Gwen making out and ignoring their fight, like they always did. 

He scrunched his face up and looked at MJ, folding his arms over his torso. She didn’t look away, her eyes raking up his chest before making eye contact with him. Peter blushed again, trying his best to hold eye contact with her, but he ended up being the one to look away, of course. Michelle was just too intimidating for him to not. 

This time when he diverted his eyes, they landed on her book. It was sitting rather neatly on top of her pile of folded clothes. He glanced back at her quickly before putting his spidey skills to use for the first time in days. In a matter of seconds, the book went from on top of clothes to in his hands and dangling over the edge of the lake. 

“Don’t you dare, don’t you fucking dare.” Michelle stormed over, violently pointing at him. 

“Admit that we’re friends.” Peter was getting bold, his chest puffing out, knowing that he finally had something dangling over her head. 

“No, give me the book back.” She took another step towards him, her arm now stretching out towards the book. She nearly jumped when he held her book between just his thumb and index finger. 

“Admit it.” 

“Peter.” MJ narrowed her eyes, now only a few inches from him. She directly into his eyes and watched Peter shrink into himself. 

“Alright, alright,” Peter surrendered, suddenly remembering the punch he’d gotten after throwing her book out the car window on the way here. He quickly threw her book back onto her clothes. “It’s okay, we both know we’re frien-” 

Before he could finish, his whole body tingled and without even trying, he ducked to the ground. A splash was heard and his eyes widened, watching a very angry MJ emerge from the water. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to hold back a laugh but failing. 

Peter was never caught off guard, he could feel it coming before it happened but sometimes, he wouldn’t react fast enough. There was a sharp tug the one arm that was supporting himself on the ground, the shift in his weight causing him to go tumbling into the water next to Michelle. 

Before he fell in the water, his body decided that the best reaction would be to push himself off the bank, causing him to more or less jump into the water. He fell in with more force than what he would’ve preferred, doing a couple of flips in the water. 

He couldn’t open his eyes, he wasn’t sure which way was up or down. There was no Iron Man to fish him out this time. At least he wasn’t tangled in a parachute. Peter’s flailing arms eventually broke the surface of the water and he pushed himself in that direction, taking a deep breath in. 

Apparently, he forgot not even spider’s can breath underwater. His feet found a place on the murky bottom of the lake, but his lungs were trying to find their way up and out of his throat as he coughed. Peter felt a hand hit his back repeatedly, which he wasn’t sure if he appreciated or not. He placed a hand on the persons, what he assumed, or at least hoped, shoulder. 

Different voices filled his ears but he couldn’t make out what they were saying at all. Another pair of hands held his shoulders from the front and pushed his hair out of his face. He tried to open his eyes but found that his vision was blurry, from lake water or tears, he didn’t know. All he knew was that it was Michelle standing in front of him, he could tell from the glow of her skin and the feel of her touch. 

After what felt like an eternity, he stopped coughing as much, finally able to at least breathe raspily. Peter rubbed his eyes, blinking rapidly to clear his muddy vision. With a deep breath, he managed to crack a smile at the terrified expression on Michelle’s face. 

“You asshole!” Michelle exclaimed, sending a massive splash of water into his face. Peter flinched and dived to the side. 

“What the hell, MJ?!” He croaked, coughing a couple of times. 

“Don’t ‘what the hell, MJ’ me! I thought you drowned!” Her chest was heaving as her arms waved frantically in the air, droplets of water flying into Peter’s face. 

“Yeah! So did I!” Peter cried, his own arms flung into the air, gesturing towards himself and then to MJ. “I’m the one who actually had to live that!” 

“Ok, ok-” Gwen tried to interrupt and diffuse the situation, but nothing could stop an angry Michelle. 

“I’m the one who would’ve had to live with the fact that it was my fault if you did die!” MJ’s voice cracked slightly at the end but she tried her best to cover it up by flopping her arms into the water, a small splash being the result. 

“Trust me; I know exactly how that feels.” Peter raised his brows at her, his raspy voice now softer, both of them knowing exactly what he was referring to. 

Michelle’s wide eyes slowly returned to their normal size and they stared at each other, their breathing calming at the same rate. She folded her arms over her stomach while he pushed stray hairs out of his eyes. Michelle gulped. 

“You’ve probably got all sorts of bugs in your lungs now.” Michelle pointed out, her voice quieter and shyer than he’d ever heard it.

“It’s alright, I’m part spider anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello um i like this chapter actually plz like it too anyway thanks to hell on earth for the help :)


	6. Chapter 6

Maybe it was just from the fact he’d had no sleep and nearly drowned, but the way the sunlight bounced off the water around her and the small curls that framed her face made his heart beat faster. It must just be the recent trauma making him delusional, he hoped it was. 

The fact that MJ was worried enough about him to get angry made him woozy. Maybe that was just the lack of recent oxygen, that must be it. Peter pressed his palm to his forehead and took a deep breath, drowning was surprisingly hard work. 

It took him a while to gather up his guts and be able to move, Ned had a hand on his lower back, guiding Peter out of the water. But of course, Peter being Peter and Ned being Ned, he still slipped on the bottom of the lake as he tried to get out, falling flat onto the bank, which wasn’t a soft pillow of grass. 

Peter groaned and Ned apologised profusely. Gwen gasped and covered her mouth while MJ snickered a little bit stopped herself. 

Peter pushed himself up onto his hands and looked down at his chest to see a plethora of small cuts and scrapes decorating his upper-half. He sighed, but shook his head, not making a big deal out of it because he knew they’d heal soon. 

“Dude, you need to rinse all the stones and dirt and stuff out of that,” Ned pointed out, his hand still on Peter’s lower back even though thus just discovered it did nothing. 

“Where?” 

“In the lake.” 

“Nope,” Peter shook his head, gathering up the rest of his strength and pulling himself out of the water. “Absolutely not, I didn’t even want to get in without any cuts that are susceptible to infection.” 

“I thought you couldn’t get infections?” MJ asked, furrowing her brow. 

“Well--” Peter went to argue. “Whatever, I’m not rinsing it in the lake.” 

“If you don’t, your body will heal over with that shit inside,” Ned said, his eyes wide with fear. 

“Good point. I’ll go back to camp now and clean myself up with the first aid kit May gave me.” Peter said as he stood up, having to put his arms out and balance himself for a few seconds. 

“Aw,” Gwen pouted. “I feel like we just got in!” 

Ned looked between his best friend and girlfriend, conflict clear in his eyes. He was fighting a battle and Peter was pretty sure he knew what side Ned was going to take so he didn’t understand why he was having such an internal debate. 

“Look,” Michelle got out of the water gracefully, Peter was jealous. “I’ll go back with him, make sure he doesn’t pass out on the way, you two can stay here. Sound good?” 

Gwen beamed and nodded while Ned confirmed that it sounded good, giving Peter a sorry look, one Peter knew all too well at this point. He watched as Michelle grabbed both his and her belongings, bundling them up in her arms. 

Peter waved at them before turning around and walking, Michelle finding her place next to him. He looked down at his chest again and winced, his pouting lip jutting out in a pout. He began to try and dust some of the debris off but MJ slapped his hand away. 

“Don’t, that’s nasty.”

He shrugged, looking up ahead where he was going and trying not to fall over. Peter scrunched his face up in the bright sun every time there was a gap into the overhead trees. The light gave him a headache, or rather, made his current headache worse. 

Michelle noticed his wobbly steps and looked him up and down, her eyes stuck on the constant grimace etched on his features. 

“Do you want me to hold your hand so you don’t fall, or are you ok?” There was a sarcastic tone to her voice but Peter could tell she actually meant it. She would hold his hand in a heartbeat if it meant keeping him upright. 

Peter shook his head, looking at her before looking back where he was walking after he stumbled slightly. Perhaps he should’ve said yes to the offer. 

A whine escaped his mouth when he stumbled, his body obviously twisting in a way it wasn’t happy with. He looked down to his side where the most stinging was coming from and noticed one of the nastier cuts he’d received.

Michelle followed his gaze to see the cut and scrunched up her nose. “That looks like it stings.” 

“It’s okay, I’ve had worse,” Peter sighed and twiddled his thumbs. 

MJ didn’t like thinking about that. At all. She’d seen some footage of different predicaments that Peter, well, Spider-Man had gotten himself into and they weren’t exactly pleasant. There were all sorts of instances where he was shot at, stabbed, or just beat up in general. Yeah, not exactly her favourite type of entertainment. 

From what she’d gathered, Peters body could fix itself up. So she wasn’t quite sure why exactly she had to go back with him. Shouldn’t he be healed by now? Especially with injuries this minor. 

“How long would it take, say, a stab wound to heal?” Michelle asked, furrowing her brows. 

“Uh,” Peter screwed his lips to the side in thought. “A couple of hours until the skin kinda covers it up but then maybe three days, depending on how bad it is. I have had to give myself stitches before.” 

“You’ve given yourself stitches? Peter, how do you even know how to do that?” Michelle was genuinely shocked, and a little scared that he could sew himself together so easily. 

“YouTube. They’re not good but I only need them for like the first day.”

She just about had a crisis when he said that. So, the boy who refused to get in a lake probably gave himself stitches every other night with a needle that probably wasn’t sterilised and normal thread, ironic. 

“Does it hurt?” Michelle asked after they walked in silence for a while. 

“The stitches or like my whole body right now, because yes to both. But, when I give myself stitches it’s really nothing when compared to the actual wound.” 

“You don’t scar,” She pointed out, looking up and down his body and noticing that the only marks on it where the fresh ones. 

“Yeah,” Peter shrugged. “I just heal and then it’s like nothing ever happened.” 

MJ pointed up to her collarbone, highlighting a faint tan line that stretched over about half the length. “I got this when I was ten, a piece of glass cut pretty deep, I got three stitches.” 

“That must’ve hurt, how did glass even cut you there anyway?” Peter leaned in to look at the line, resisting the urge to reach up and brush his thumb over it.

“I- Uh,” Michelle cleared her throat and looked at the ground, her voice getting quiet. “Can’t remember.” 

She was lying, it was obvious. Peter was stupid sometimes, but Michelle was a bad liar and Peter spent enough time around May to know when people didn’t want to tell you something. May lied to him a lot, especially after Ben died. 

So he didn’t press any further, just nodded and kept walking. The sun was getting hotter and hotter, Peter suddenly wished he just got in the damn lake and avoided this whole situation. He might’ve drowned, but the water was cold and even the thought of the water made him thirsty. 

He wiggled his phone out of the bundle of objects MJ was carrying, ignoring her glare as he dislodged her book. It didn’t fall, because Peter caught it, more or less because he was scared of what might happen if he didn’t. 

There were messages from May asking how his day was going, did he sleep ok, was he warm enough? Peter didn’t want to worry her, so he told her he was fine. He did, however, send a message to Tony. 

‘just nearly drowned again :P’ 

‘How.’ 

‘water :D’ 

‘Do I have to tell Aunt May?’ 

‘NO’ 

Peter decided that now was a good time to stop talking, a skill that had taken him years to learn. His bare feet were starting to ache and all he wanted, all he really wanted, was to sit down. So when their campsite came into view, he would’ve jumped and down with joy if his body didn’t allow it. 

The walk from where he first spotted it to the actual site felt excruciatingly long. Everything was worse, his feet hurt more, his cuts stung more, the sun burnt him more. It was like walking the stairway to heaven, the journey killing him but finally, he sat down in a chair and everything was ok again. 

The birds were singing, he’d been dunked in the lake again, the grass was a pillow under his feet. It was glorious, until one of his shoes collided with his chest. He pressed a hand to the spot it hit, wincing dramatically and groaning even though the hit felt like a fly landing on him. 

“I can’t look after you if you’re that low, get on the table.” Michelle jutted her chin towards the fold-out table, that Peter was honestly a little scared to put any kind of weight whatsoever on. 

He pursed his lips and but got up, sitting on the table as gently as he possibly could. Sighing, he slouched and watched MJ put their stuff down in one of the chairs, going to Gwen’s car and getting out the first aid kit. 

Both stayed quiet as she placed the kit on the table next to him, unzipping it and examining the contents. He opened his mouth to tell her something, to tell her which item she should grab but she bet him to it, picking up an antiseptic wipe. Michelle quirked a brow up at him and ripped open the packet. 

“You’re gonna have to sit up straighter,” She said. “I can’t do it properly if you slouch.” 

“There’s nothing to lean on though.” Peter huffed, pouting at her. 

“Peter--” She sighed a little and dabbed one of the wounds, causing him to wince. “I know that if you get an infection your body will fight it off in a heartbeat but still, it’s better you don’t get any at all.” 

Peter grimaced but sat up, looking down and watching MJ tend to him. Her forehead was creased and brows knitted together as she hunted for more cuts that decorated his chest. Any other day, this would be badass, but knowing that he’d injured himself by falling over in a lake ruined it. 

In the end, he ended up leaning back on his elbows, stretching his torso out. His head flopped onto his shoulder and he watched MJ with lazy eyes, now used to the stinging sensation. Wet curls fell into his eyes but he could care less. 

The fact it was genuinely so hard to not just press her hands to Peter’s muscles was really starting to annoy her. Her body wanted to feel his own against her, but her brain was screaming at her that it was a bad idea. She reluctantly agreed with that sentiment. 

MJ looked up at him, seeing his eyes peering at her from under his lashes. She’d never seen him shirtless before. The Spider-Man suit was pretty tight, the whole of New York has pretty much seen his shirtless because of it. This, this was different. His abs were glistening under the sun, droplets of water adding to the angelic effect. Michelle cursed under her breath and tried to focus on patching him up. 

Even so, she silently thanked God that his chest was littered with scrapes, it gave her an excuse to explore. The fact he was leaning on his arms meant that his biceps were tensed and MJ hated herself for loving it. She’d be lying if she didn’t say part of the reason she offered to help him was so she could stare at him a little longer. 

Slowly, she’d managed to edge herself to a comfortable spot between Peter’s legs and flush against the table. When she was content with her nursing job, she looked back up at Peter’s face and her heart jumped into her throat. Michelle gulped, clearing her throat and Peter raised a brow. 

“Finished?” He asked, sitting up. The boy blushed afterwards, now realising just how close the two had really gotten. Their chests were just about touching and Michelle was still looking directly into his face. 

“Mhm,” MJ hummed, her eyes gazing up and down his chest one last time with sucked in cheeks. She pressed a finger to his cheek gently. “You’re burnt.” 

Peter didn’t say anything as she grabbed a bottle of after sun from the kit, squeezing some of the gel into her hand. For what felt like the hundredth time, she combed his hair back and off his forehead. Gently, she rubbed the gel into his face. Peter hissed at the biting cold of the gel but got over it quickly, relaxing into her touch. 

He’d never been this close to a girl before. Actually, that was a lie. He kissed Liz at Home-Coming, but it was awkward, rushed and panicked. The whole time he was fighting her dad he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact he’d just kissed her and ran off. But this was different. Peter had never felt this kind of close with anyone, let alone a girl, nevertheless, that girl being Michelle. 

As her hands fell down his cheeks and grazed his jaw, a seed was planted in her stomach. It was growing bigger and bigger with every fraction their faces inched closer. Well, Michelle’s inched closer to Peter’s. When his breath fanned her lips and their eyes met there was a whole pumpkin sitting tightly inside of her. MJ hated pumpkin.

Pumpkin was mushy and orange, orange was an ugly colour. Unless it was the sunset, but then again, she liked the pink and purple sunsets better. Pumpkin seeds were strung together by that gross orange gunk and it suddenly felt as if her mouth was full of it. 

She swore she heard Peter growl just as he all but lunged forward, suddenly eager compared to how he was behaving a split second again. Alas, she was wrong. The only growl that came from Peter was from his stomach. It was loud and guttural and caused both of them to halt just as their noses brushed. 

The boy blushed and looked down at his stomach, causing MJ to involentarily take her hands off his jaw. He pressed a hand to his stomach and shrunk into himself, looking up at Michelle who had taken a step away from him. 

“Um,” She closed her eyes as she smoothed her hair back and off her face. “When’s the last time you ate?” 

“Dinner last night?” Peter replied, not entirely sure himself if that was actually the last time he’d eaten. What he did know was that he definitely was not eating enough to sustain his increased metabolism. 

 

“Jeez Peter, well that’s why you aren’t healing normally.” Michelle’s eyes widened as she rummaged through their cooler, eventually handing him a box of crackers which he ripped into faster than he’d like to admit. 

He thanked her with a mouth full of cracker, she grimaced at the bits that fell from his mouth but smiled in reply anyway.

Peter nearly choked on the carbs when MJ bent over to pick up her t-shirt from the ground. She was still in her underwear from their swim and had yet to get dressed. Could you blame him? Michelle was good looking and he was nearly kissing her a mere two minutes ago. 

Today had been too much for him to handle and it wasn’t even 4 in the afternoon yet. He didn’t notice Michelle had dissapeared because he was so enthralled with shovelling crackers in his mouth. When she came back, she was wearing the shirt that he had worn down to the lake. His shirt. His. 

She was also holding a bowl and a water bottle that looked like it’d just been taken out of the frdige. Michelle looked up at him before extedning both items out to him. Putting the box of crackers down, he grabbed both and peered into the bowl to find she’d prepared him ramen. 

Peter’s stomach growled again at the sight. He put both items down and looked up at MJ, who was looking at him with a small smile, twiddling her thumbs. He smiled back at her and swung his feet back and forth, feeling as if he was a three-year-old again. 

“Thank you, MJ.” He outstretched his arms for a hug. 

“No, you’re covered in-” She paused as she looked at his chest. “What the hell? They’re almost gone?” 

“Because I’ve been fed, cleaned and about to be watered, thanks to you.” 

Michelle put her hand over one of the fading injuries, her thumb stroking over it lightly. It was just another excuse to touch him. She felt Peter’s eyes burning into the side of her head and stepped away, taking her hand off. 

“Eat your food.” She coughed and folded her arms over her chest, walking over to the camp chair and flopping into it. 

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“Don’t call me that or I’ll punch you again.” 

Peter didn’t want that, so he picked up his food and started eating, watching Michelle read her book as he did. Ramen was suddenly his favourite food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im on that grind y'all


	7. Chapter 7

“So, did you guys fuck or something?” 

Peter choked on his spit at Ned's question. He looked up at him with furrowed brows and rubbed his throat. Ned was looking at him with raised brows, waiting for an answer. 

“What?” Peter croaked. 

“You and MJ, did you fuck?” Ned nodded towards MJ, who was still sitting in the same chair as earlier, reading her book. Peter looked at her from behind the barbeque where they were cooking their dinner. 

“Why would we- no!” Peter whipped his head back to Ned who raised his hands in defence. 

“She’s wearing your shirt and you’re still shirtless!” Ned defended, his eyes getting wider and his voice more accusatory. 

“Well- Ned, no!” Peter’s voice cracked as he whispered. “I’m a virgin, you know that.” 

“I can’t believe you’re ten times hotter than me and you’re the virgin in this situation.” 

“I--” Peter blushed and folded his arms. “I’m just, I’m waiting, for the right person.” 

“What’s wrong with MJ?” Ned asked, ignoring Peter’s innocence and awkwardness regarding the topic of conversation. 

“Nothing is wrong MJ, I- She's- I’m a virgin and she's not. Besides, she hates my guts.” 

“The fact she’s wearing your shirt says different.” Ned hummed and gave a smug smile before turning over the sausages. 

Peter sighed and shook his head, looking down at the food they were cooking before deciding to start grabbing cutlery. They really needed to do dishes sometime soon. He remembered MJ saying something about how she was excited to have falafel for dinner tonight, so he grabbed the mix from the cooler and started making it on the other side of the grill. 

Ned gave him a weird look but he ignored it. Peter didn’t know how this meal worked, so he decided five was a good number and made five falafel’s that resembled something like a pattie. Peter wasn’t really sure how he was supposed to cook them but he figured he was doing an acceptable job. 

Ten minutes later he was presenting Michelle with a plate of food, including the salad that they had all planned on eating tonight. She looked up at him with a quirked brow and a small smile, watching him try to bite back a proud grin.   
“You made my dinner?” She asked, putting her book down and taking the plate from him. Peter shrugged and smiled small, holding his hands behind his back and fiddling with his fingers. “You know how to cook falafel?” 

“No, not really. I saw you making it on the first day so I just kind of- remembered.” 

Michelle shrugged and took a bite of one, her brows raising in surprise. “Not bad, I’m impressed.” 

Peter smiled and did a small bow, causing her to laugh a little and shake her head. Michelle took another bite and looked Peter up and down. He folded his arms over his still naked chest at the feeling of her eyes on him, suddenly feeling rather self-conscious around her. 

He gestured behind him towards Ned and went to open his mouth to make an excuse but nothing happened. MJ understood anyway, shooing him away. Peter nodded at her sharply before going back to Ned who was looking at him with the most dumbfounded expression Peter had ever seen. 

Peter furrowed his brows and raised his hands in a confused gesture. Ned shook his head and looked back to barbeque, mumbling something in a mocking voice about how Peter and MJ so didn’t have sex. 

________________________________________

Ned and Gwen were talking about Peter and MJ and they could not make it any more obvious. Gwen was pointing for godsakes, the two of them whispering behind their hands as if it was some sort of invisibility cloak. 

MJ looked at Peter with a raised brow, he returned the fed up expression before they both continued to watch the couple talk. They may as well just be shouting their conversation for it would have the same effect. 

Peter sighed, looking at the empty fire pit and then up at the sky, which was now a rich dark blue and getting darker by the minute. Michelle was still reading her back, now within the last few pages. Peter, who was banging a stick on the ground looked over at the book, bending down to read the title of it. 

“You alright there?” Michelle asked, furrowing her brows. 

“‘Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan.” 

“So you can read?” She gasped sarcastically and looked at him with a smile. 

“Shut up,” He flicked the cover of the book in an attempt to annoy her and sat up. “Is it any good.” 

“Yes. Very.” 

“What’s it about?” Peter asked as he put different twigs he found on the ground into the fire pit. 

“An Italian who sneaks Jews into Switzerland and then becomes a spy in World War Two.” 

“Is it a true story?” 

“Yeah,” She shut the book and looked at him. “Yeah, it is. He was only seventeen too.” 

“It must take some guts to do that.” He replied, grabbing some more kindling they brought and the lighter. 

“Well, you would know what takes guts.” 

“No,” Peter scoffed “I stop people from stealing their own car, that doesn’t exactly take a lot of guts.” 

“Every time you put on that suit you could die and you know that, yet you still do it to help others. Just because we’re not in the middle of World War three doesn’t mean it’s a pointless act.” 

Peter shrugged and lit the fire, staying quiet for a few minutes while MJ watched him work. “I have weird abilities, he doesn’t. Therefore, he is braver than I ever will be.” 

“That’s not true, Peter.” 

He sighed, tugging at the sleeves on the hoodie he’d put on after he showered. Michelle was wearing his sweater from the night before again. It looked better on her in his opinion anyway. Peter rested his elbow on his knee and cupped his face in his hand. 

MJ watched him for a moment, the downward curve of his mouth getting bigger and his forehead creasing more. With every second that passed the more upset Peter got and Michelle didn’t like it, but she had no idea what to do. 

There was almost no point in trying to praise him because he would shoot down any comment, she was just the same. Peter busied himself by tending to the fire that didn’t need to be tended too, Michelle didn’t pick her book back up. 

“You know--” Michelle paused for a moment and he glanced at her quickly. “If any other person was bitten by that spider I’ll tell you now that Spider-Man would not exist. If I was bitten and I could do the things you did there’s no way I would be staring down the barrel every night. It takes a special kind of person to do that and I think New York is really lucky that they have you.” 

Peter was silent, pulling the string of his hoodie back and forth. He took a deep breath in and looked at Michelle, who was still looking at him too. His mouth opened to speak and he didn’t for a few seconds but when he did, it was almost a whisper as he squeaked; “You’re special too, MJ. Not that I’m special but-- you just are.” 

For the first time in months, years, her entire time on Earth, Michelle blushed. She could feel the red warmth soaking her cheeks and it scared her. Michelle didn’t blush, not for any reason whatsoever. The girl pressed her hands to her cheeks and bit back a curse, thanking God for the cover of night and, for once, the colour of her skin. 

Her stomach caved in on itself and her insides were comparable to the texture of a cheese cake. In short, Michelle was a mess for a reason she didn’t want to confront. So in typical fashion, she ignored it and looked at Peter again. 

He was staring into the fire with an empty look, his shoulders sagged and knees to his chest. With every moment that went by, MJ swore she could see his soul leaving his body.

“Being Spider-Man isn’t all that great, by the way,” Peter croaked, his eyes drinking up the fire in an attempt to relight his own. Michelle didn’t say anything. “I don’t care about-- putting myself in danger it’s just, it’s scary. Scary because if people die or get injured, anything, it’s on me, it’s my fault.”

“You can’t save everyone, Peter.” 

“Exactly. I can’t save everyone and that’s the worst part.” 

“Think about the people you do save.” 

“Yeah but, I never save the important people. Not-not that people aren’t important, I mean, the people who are important to me. I never save the people who are important to me.” He sucked in a breath through his teeth before turning towards the girl next to him. The tears in his eyes evident from the glimmer the fire left. “I couldn’t even save you in a dream.” 

“Me?” Michelle’s eyes widened and Peter nodded. 

“And Ned, Gwen, Tony, May,” His voice quivered as he listed the names of those in his dream. “Ben, again. It must be the thousandth time I’ve watched him die.” 

“Did you know I had a sister.” 

“You have a sister?” 

“Had.” Michelle corrected, staring at the fire while Peter stayed silent. “My mom has fertility issues so she was kind of- she was a miracle baby and that’s why there was a seven-year gap between us. She died when she was four, it was a car accident. My mom went grocery shopping alone with her, I didn’t go. Mom turned around for two seconds to close the trunk and in that tiny window my sister was hit.” 

“MJ, I’m so sorry,” Peter whispered, his eyes soft. Michelle gave him a hard smile. 

“I was a brat and threw a tantrum because I thought I was old enough to stay home alone. My dad was at work so if I had just sucked it up and went maybe she’d still be alive.” 

“You were a kid, MJ, you couldn’t have known--” 

“Exactly, I didn’t know. Just the same way you wouldn’t have known Ben was going to die. I was only a couple of years younger than you were when Ben died.”

“A couple of years is a lot, MJ, especially between eleven and fourteen.” 

“The point is, I wasn’t the one driving the car and you weren’t the one firing the bullet. The blame falls on them and them only. Not us, or May, or my mom. Only them.” Michelle cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “You can spend a lifetime asking yourself ‘what if’s’ but what’s the point? What happened, happened, no matter how fucked up it was and the fact it never should have happened, it did.” 

“What was her name?” 

“Chloe.”

Peter didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. For the past few years, it was almost like she didn’t have a family, or a past, or emotions because she never talked about them. Michelle talked about books and called Peter a nerd and that was about it. 

It was the strangest feeling, realising that other people besides himself had their own sob stories. No one had ever seemed to understand how he felt at all before, to know that someone had gone through a similar situation was surreal.

Seeing MJ so composed while telling her story was difficult for him to comprehend but when he took into account how many more year’s it had been for her it made more sense. As well as that, Michelle was the smartest person he knew in every aspect, she was also now one of the strongest. Of course, had no idea what she was like when it first happened. Peter knew how he was, and that was a whole mess. 

Life was cruel and he couldn’t tell if MJ handled it well or not. He used to think she was just closed off but now, now he had no idea what she was. All he knew was that he wanted to know her, he wanted to know everything. 

He didn’t just mean about her family and her home life or any other tragedies she may have experienced. Peter wanted to know the little things. What was her favourite time of day? Her favourite type of candy bar? Did she even eat candy? Probably not. 

Looking back at MJ, he found her now lying down, looking up at the sky. Peter copied, laying next to her. He sighed, the past 24 hours hitting him like a truck. He’d been hit by one before, it wasn’t too bad but still, ow. 

MJ looked over at him and watched him rub his eyes with the palm of his hands, taking slow deep breaths. His jaw was clenched tightly, her eyes tracing the line of it and up to his unruly hair that she’d never seen so messy before. Her own hands tugged on the sleeves of his sweater she was wearing, wishing they could swap, the one he was currently wearing looked cozier than hers just because she knew it would smell like him more. 

Just looking at him now made her heart beat faster and she hated it. She hated it with every piece of her. She spent years distancing herself from people to avoid this exact thing but, of course, Mr Peter Parker found a way to crawl between the cracks without even trying. 

Screw him and his perfect morals and his perfect looks and his perfect personality. No, but really, screw him. She really wanted too. 

“Have you ever been too scared to go to sleep?” Peter asked, turning his head to look at. Michelle pretended like she wasn’t already looking at him. 

“Yes.” She replied blatantly, before thinking back to last night, remembering when he held her hand and traced the lines. “I’m right here, Peter. I’m not going anywhere.” 

MJ extended her hand out to him and he grabbed it, shuffling in closer to her. They were fairly close before and now they were laying shoulder to shoulder, their intertwined hands on top of his chest. He placed his other hand on top, engulfing hers in his. 

HIs heart was stuck in his throat, yearning to burst out as he looked at her. The light from the moon outlined the silhouette of her face with a silver haze. His chin was just about resting on her shoulder and his nose was nearly pressed against her cheek. 

Michelle was trying her best not to look at him, feeling his face so close to hers caused her heart to thump so hard it hurt. To combat the temptation she fluttered her eyes shut and felt his breath fan against her. 

“You look really fucking pretty.” 

It was so quiet, she almost didn’t hear it, but she did. Her eyes snapped open and he looked at him, really noticing their proximity now. Peter was blushing, his pale complexion giving him away easily. He gulped, his eyes flickering from her face to somewhere behind her. 

“You look,” She paused, looking for the right words, “pretty too. 

He blushed harder, a small smile taking over his face and a snippet of a laugh escaping him. Peter looked up at the stars for a moment before looking back at her, seeing her eyes closed again. Hesitantly, he put his head in the crook of her neck, her small curls tickling his nose before closing his eyes.

She’d never admit it, but she smiled feeling him smile against her neck. Her fingers squeezed his own, reassuring him that she was still there. Michelle wasn’t sure how long they were like that for, but she didn’t care. Peter was sleeping and so far, had not shown a single sign of having a nightmare. The last thing she wanted to do was wake him up, not to mention, she didn’t want to move anyway. 

Small snores tumbled from his slightly open mouth. So small, Michelle wasn’t even sure if she was imagining them or not. Every now and then they would stop for a minute or so before continuing. 

“Oh my God.” A voice in the distance broke the peace. “Oh my God, Ned, look at them. Look at them! Oh my God, Oh my God!” 

MJ was about to ask her if she wanted to use the Lord's name in vain one more time when she felt their presence looming over their resting bodies. She sighed before peeking through one eye. Gwen was beaming and squeezing Ned’s hand so hard MJ was scared it might pop off. 

“Would you shut it? We’re sleeping,” Michelle grumbled, settling back into Peter’s side.

“We can see that,” Ned chimed, far too loud for her taste, and Peter’s taste too, judging by the way he stirred and nuzzled further into Michelle’s neck. 

“I knew you guys had sex! I knew it!” Gwen shrieked, causing Michelle to groan and Peter to wake up, a small whine escaping his mouth and his eyelashes fluttering against her skin.

He squinted up at Ned and Gwen with puffy eyes. Peter rubbed the sleep out of his blurred vision with his spare hand, not even daring to move the other one. Michelle looked at him as he sat up slightly, staring down at her before back up at his other two, rather annoying, friends. 

“Is everything ok?” He croaked. 

“Yes!” Gwen squealed just as Ned yelled that everything was perfect. 

“Ok.” He mumbled, annoyance in his voice. “So why am I awake?” 

“Oh, um,” Ned stammered a sly smile forming on his face. “It’s just getting colder so you guys should go to your tent.” 

“Alright,” Peter sighed, standing up at the same time as MJ, their hands never disconnecting. He leaned into her slightly, his body ridden with exhaustion from the day’s events as well as his recent rude awakening. 

MJ lead him back to their tent, unzipping it and letting him go in first, their hands reluctantly parting.

“Don’t have too much fun!” Gwen exclaimed, giggling. 

“Don’t worry,” Michelle shot back, still outside the tent. “I’m just going to fuck his brains out.” 

Peter looked at her with wide eyes as she crawled in, zipping the door back up. She shook her head at his shocked expression, lying down next to him again. Michelle grabbed his hand again and curled into his side, this time her head nuzzling into his neck. 

“Go to sleep.” 

Peter didn’t ask any questions. Instead, he closed his eyes, relaxing at the feel of MJ against him. They were both asleep within minutes, feeling the best they had since arriving at the god forsaken campground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soft :) twitta: @/lowqualtom


	8. Chapter 8

Peter couldn’t name a time he’d had a better sleep. Even though he was on an air mattress so deflated he could feel the ground anyway and he was sweating from the heat of the morning and his legs were so tangled in the duvet he couldn’t even move them, he was content.

 

Michelle’s head had ended up on his chest and although their hands weren't intertwined anymore, he still felt closer to her than ever before. She was still asleep and Peter didn’t mind, if anything he felt guilty because he knew sooner or later he was going to smell terrible from the sweat and she was going to face the brunt of it. 

 

She’d woken up multiple times throughout the night, always to make sure that Peter was still sleeping soundly, he always was. 

 

He was sure she was going to wake up soon, the inside of the tent was getting brighter by the second, not to mention hotter and she was still wearing his sweater. Peter was itching to pull his hoodie off and then immediately get into a shower. He couldn’t do that, not yet. 

 

Peter was right, she did wake up soon after him. He heard a deep intake of breath and felt her shift. Michelle eventually sat up a hand on his chest as she stretched the other arm out with lazy eyes. 

 

“Morning,” Her voice tinted with rasp, looking down at him. 

 

“Morning,” He replied, smiling and running a hand through his hair. 

 

“It’s really hot in here,” Michelle huffed, yanking his sweater off from the bottom. Peter watched, a hint of red creeping up his neck. 

 

He sniffed and ran a hand over his face, sitting up and looking at her, her hand falling as he sat up. Peter yawned, and took his hoodie off, finally. He quickly replaced it with a shirt, suddenly feeling strangely self-conscious in front of MJ. 

 

After both had put on shirts, they crawled out of the tent, Peter giving MJ a hand to help her stand up. Gwen and Ned were sitting with rather smug looks on their face, causing Michelle to roll her eyes and grab the loaf of bread. 

 

No words were exchanged before she grabbed Peter by the wrist and dragged him to the kitchen, toast supplies in her other hand. He looked back at Ned and shrugged before following willingly. 

 

“What if I don’t want toast?” Peter raised a brow at her boldness. 

 

“You don’t like milk and you’ve had toast every morning since we’ve been here. I think you want toast.” 

 

“Well- yeah okay, that’s true.” 

 

“I know,” MJ replied, putting two pieces in one of the toasters and two pieces in another for Peter. 

 

Silence fell over them but it was ok. The silence was different now, it was nice. Both felt like they could sit in it forever with each other be perfectly fine. They each finished topping their own pieces of toast and ate as they walked back to the site, who needed plates anyway?

 

Ned and Gwen were in the exact same position, the exact same smug looks on their face. Gwen had her legs crossed and her palms clasped together on her lap. Ned had a cheery smile as always, his hands behind his head. 

 

“We need to talk,” Gwen smiled. “All of us, together, as a family.” 

 

“A family?” Michelle asked, unimpressed. 

 

“A family.” Ned reiterated. “Sit.” 

 

Peter and MJ sat in the chairs across from their friends that Ned had gestured too. Michelle folded her arms over her chest and Peter glanced at her awkwardly before pulling on the arm of the camp chair, suddenly very interested with how it moved up and down. 

 

“So when are you two just going to admit you wanna jump each other's bones?” Gwen asked, far too abrupt for Peter’s taste. His eyes widened but he shoved more toast into his mouth in an attempt to avoid the conversation. 

 

Michell scoffed, crossing her legs. “I’m sorry?” 

 

“You two are painfully obvious yet oblivious at the same time and it’s driving Ned and me insane!” Gwen’s arms flung into the air as her eyes went wide.

 

“Can you two not just make out already and get on with it?” Ned added on, clearly not as bothered about the situation as Gwen, rather just entertained. 

 

“Can you two just not make out every five minutes for once?” MJ shot back, causing Gwen to frown and Ned to gape. Peter had a sudden urge to run. 

 

“Alright!” Ned interrupted Gwen, who was clearly about to shout something back at MJ, a rather offended expression on her face. “What we just mean, is that you two have grown closer and it’s beginning to seem more and more like you like each other and we’re just trying to give you two a shove. That’s all.” 

 

“Sorry to break it to you, Ned,” Michelle said sarcastically, her eyes narrowed and head moving side to side as she spoke. “I don’t like Peter, he’s barely even a friend. The only reason you think that is because we’re forced to spend time together due to you two going at it like rabbits all day every day on this stupid fucking camping trip that no one wanted to go on except Gwen.”

 

Peter’s heart dropped into his stomach as he looked at Michelle, who glanced at him quickly before getting out of the chair with a violent push. He watched as she grabbed her book from the table before storming off, she rummaged around in their tent for a minute or so and left, following the same route they all walked yesterday. 

 

His breath hitched as he looked back at apparently, his only friends. Peter’s tongue twisted in his mouth as they watched on with reticent faces. He tilted his head to the side and twiddled with his thumbs. 

 

“She didn’t-” Peter stuttered and laughed awkwardly. “She didn’t mean anything she just said-- you know how MJ is.” 

 

“Yeah,” Gwen swallowed. “But it meant something to you, didn’t it?” 

 

Peter shrugged, looking at her before look and the ground. He took in a deep breath and planted a small smile on his face, one he mastered after Ben’s death. 

 

“We’ll just give her some time to herself. I think she’s just um- over um socialised. Or something. You know, she likes alone time.” Peter cleared his throat, again.

 

So Peter gave her space, partly because he needed his own space for a while too. Gwen and Ned left Peter alone, Ned recognising that it was probably for the best because of the solemn feeling almost pulsing off Peter. Ned knew that once Peter had his headphones in and his hoodie up, it was time to leave him alone. 

 

Of course, he wanted to talk to Peter, he was his best friend after all. They’d seen each other through all their ups and downs, through the best of times and the worst of times. Ned almost felt bad he wasn’t comforting him, but again, he knew his best friend. 

 

A few hours had past and there was still no sign of Michelle. Peter being Peter, he got worried. The familiar feeling had been brewing in the pit of his stomach for a while, but it had only just reached the breaking point. 

 

Without so much as a glance at Ned and Gwen, he stood up and followed the path he’d watched Michelle take. He walked slowly, scuffing his shoes along the gravel path, hands in his pockets. 

 

He was playing the happiest music he knew, but it wasn’t changing a single thing. Peter wasn’t quite sure why exactly he was so upset, he knew it was because of what Michelle had said but he didn’t know why it hit so hard. 

 

As he kicked a stone of the path, he realised that maybe it was because he wanted Michelle to like him, not just as a friend. He really had felt that the two had grown closer but maybe he was mistaken. 

 

The walk took almost double the time it should’ve, but thanks to his slow pace he wasn’t getting anywhere anytime soon. 

 

Eventually, he stumbled across Michelle sitting next to the lake, reading as always. He took his headphones and debated if approaching her was really the best idea or not. 

 

Peter took a risk, something he rarely did. Well, depending on what time of the day you caught him. Spider-Man took risks, Peter Parker didn’t. This was a whole new level for him. 

 

He walked up and sat down next to her. She didn’t so much as look up. Peter hugged his knees to his chest and stared into the lake water before looking at her. 

 

She was re-reading a book she’d already read earlier in the week. Figuring it must be boring, he offered one his headphones to her. 

 

Michelle looked at it, her face displaying the clear internal debate she was having. Gingerly, she raised a hand and grabbed it, putting it in her ear. 

 

Peter smiled slightly and put the other one back in his ear. 

 

“ABBA?” She asked, disbelief written all over her. 

 

“Everyone likes ABBA,” Peter shrugged and laughed lightly. 

 

“I suppose you’re not wrong.” Michelle continued reading her book. 

 

After a quick scan of the area, it was clear Michelle had stormed off with the intention of staying here for a while. She’d taken a picnic blanket, a bottle of water and a small selection of food. 

 

They must’ve woken up later than he thought and the walk must’ve taken at least an hour or so because the sun was already beginning to set. 

 

“Did you mean what you said last night?” 

 

“What did I say last night?” 

 

“You said I was pretty.” 

 

“I meant everything I said last night,” Peter replied, watching as a slight red tint dusted over cheeks. She shoved her face into her shoulder in an attempt to hide it. Peter had never made a girl, let alone Michelle, blush before. 

 

“Well,” She cleared her throat after a moment. “I meant everything I said last night and nothing I said today.” 

 

Peter looked at her, she was looking straight at him too. “Except for when you said Gwen and Ned should stop making out every five minutes.” 

 

“Oh yeah, I definitely meant that,” Michelle smiled and laughed a little. 

 

Peter laughed a little too, looking back at the lake before glancing at Michelle who hadn’t flipped a page since he sat down. He gulped and tossed his phone between his hands. His lips twisted to one side before taking a deep breath and looking at her. 

 

“MJ, I-I-- like you,” Peter muttered, never wanting to run away and throw up in a bush more. 

 

“Prove it.” Michelle shrugged.

 

“Prove it?” He squeaked, raising his brows. 

 

“Prove it,” She dared once more, narrowing his eyes at him. 

 

Peter felt himself go bright red, the distance between them feeling a lot smaller than maybe he was comfortable with, but further than he would like. His heart was about to drop to the bottom of his stomach but with one final look at her, he raised his hand up to cup her face, pretending it wasn’t shaking. 

 

His thumb brushed her lip, tugging at it lightly. Michelle looked nervous, she was never nervous. Peter wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not but he almost didn’t care. With ABBA pumping through their ears, he kissed her. 

 

Michelle kissed him back, cautiously at first but eventually, her hand scrunched his hoodie up in a fist, the other one holding his wrist. She leaned into him, his other arm hooking around her waist and pulling her in closer. 

 

At one point in time, Peter realised that holy shit, he was kissing Michelle. He pulled away from her and caught his breath, looking at her with wide eyes and puffy lips. 

Michelle decided that this Peter, right at that moment in time, with the sun setting and lake in the background, this was the prettiest thing she’d ever seen. His thumb traced the outline of her mouth again and his tongue darted out to wet his lips. 

 

“Can I k--” 

 

“Uh huh,” Michelle cut him off by launching back onto him, her lips latching onto his again as they lay down on the blanket, Michelle leaning over him. 

 

He pulled her hips down onto his, MJ eventually lifting one leg over his torso and landing in a straddle. The kiss changed along with the music, becoming more heated and intense and oh my god, Michelle was making out with Peter to Voulez-Vous. What the fuck? 

 

She wasn’t sure when they switched, but Peter ended up on top of her, supporting himself on one elbow, the other on her waist. Her hands tangled in his hair, tugging slightly and causing him to grunt slightly. He felt himself blush and thanked god she couldn’t see his face right now. 

 

One of her hands reached down to the one that was on her waist and guided it upwards, pushing her shirt up. She felt his breath hitch, his lips pausing against hers for a moment. Michelle stopped moving them upwards for a moment, giving him a second to relax before continuing when he kept kissing her. 

 

Peter pulled away when they reached her breast because fuck, she wasn’t wearing a bra and shit, he’d never touched a boob before. Michelle looked up at him, biting the inside of her cheek. “You’re ok with this, right?” 

 

“Yeah,” Peter nodded. “I just-- you know, yeah.” 

 

“Just do what you think feels right.”

 

Peter nodded and kissed her neck, MJ responding by tilting her head to the other side. He rolled her nipple between his fingers, taking note that she probably liked that from the way her breath hitched. Her own fingers tugged at the bottom of his hoodie, making him pull away and letting her pull it off him. 

 

Michelle's fingers run down his torso, causing him to tense and shiver slightly. The fact that her touch lit a fire in his stomach didn’t help his stupid hypersensitivity. They traced the lines of his muscles and circled around to his back before coming back up to his neck and tangling into his hair. 

 

He switched to fondling her other breast and she pulled his face back to hers, kissing him again, this time more feverishly. Peter pressed his hips against hers but quickly pulled them away when he realised she could probably feel him even through all the clothing. 

 

MJ pulled him back down, one of her hands dipping into the waistband band of his pants, causing him to tense up again. She undid the button of his jeans with one hand, unzipping them before palming him through his briefs. 

 

Peter nearly choked as he jerked away from her a little, surprised by the bold action. After the initial shock, he returned to his previous place, MJ looking up at him for a sign to keep going. He blushed but gave a small nod. 

 

So she kept going and Peter had to ask himself why he’d never done this before. It was so much better when it was someone else. 

 

With a small boost of confidence, he kissed down her chest slowly and pushed her shirt up higher. He pressed a kiss to one of her breasts before sucking slightly. 

 

Michelle took a deep breath before taking both her hands off him and undoing her own pants, pushing them down until she could kick them off. She was left in what was probably the ugliest pair of underwear she owned and she cursed under her breath but also, Peter wouldn’t care one bit. 

 

“Peter,” She breathed, causing him to look up at her through his lashes with his doe eyes. Michelle hates that he looked so innocent while making her feel this way. “Do you want to have sex?” 

 

“I mean- I- yeah but, you know, I haven’t done this before,” Peter stuttered, his chest turning red. “Have you even got a—”

 

“Do you have your wallet on you?” 

 

Peter sat up on his knees and pat his back pocket to check. He pulled out his wallet and looked at her. 

 

“I know you’ve got one in there.” 

 

He bit the inside of his cheek and pulled it out, how she knew that? He’d never know. Peter tossed his wallet to the side before pulling his jeans down more. Michelle could see him hesitating to pull his briefs down so she sat up and kissed him quickly, one hand taking the condom off him and the other one taking the clothes off for him. 

 

Peter watched as she unwrapped the condom before putting it on him. It was then that Peter realised, he was really about to have sex with Michelle and he was nervous. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, he just had no idea what he was supposed to. What if he embarrassed himself? What if he wasn’t good enough? 

She looked up at him one last time before pulling him down on top of her again. Peter kissed her and felt her guide his hand down to her underwear. He got the hint and pulled them down her legs. 

 

Peter tried his best to line up with her but needed help from MJ in the end. He gulped and looked down at her, she looked at him and tangled a hand in his hair, pulling at it slightly before pecking his neck, the action was so small, yet so comforting. 

 

So he slowly slid inside her, her breath shuddering as he did so. Peter clenched his jaw, the sensation so foreign yet so welcoming to him. Michelle placed a hand on his hip, pushing him away before pulling him back in, giving him the general idea once again. 

 

Peter did that over and over because she seemed to be enjoying it from the way her head rolled into the ground, her eyes screwed shut and her hand pulling not so gently at his hair. It wasn't as if he wasn’t enjoying it too because he was  _ really _ enjoying it and remind him why he’d never done this before? 

 

The sound of MJ moaning his name echoing into the night made him want more, he wanted to hear it louder and clearer. When she told him through a broken sentence that he was doing a good job, Peter decided he really really liked sex. 

 

He did whatever she asked, faster, harder,  _ more _ . His stomach twisted and he could feel himself twitch inside her, his jaw slackening and more curls falling into his face. Peter buried his face in her neck, wrapping his arms snuggly around her waist and lifting her hips upwards. 

 

When Michelle bucked her hips he swore he was going to explode right then and there but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to reach his climax before her but it was too much, her breath, her touch, her hair tickling his face and the vibrations from her throat as she made colourful noises. Peter could hear her heart beating faster and faster as his own was about to leap out of his chest. 

 

His hips bucked sloppily and he couldn’t help but let go, his mouth opening to make noise but nothing came out as MJ planted her lips onto his. Her hand caressed his jaw and set his body on fire once again. When she moved her hips against his one last time Peter swore he saw stars. 

 

He pulled away from her and squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. An unfortunately familiar feeling washing over him. Peter opened his eyes to see Michelle breathing heavily with a concerned look on her face, her fingers pushing his hair out of his face. 

 

“Sorry,” He breathed. “I get-- over-stimulated sometimes.” 

 

“I made you over-stimulated?” She laughed breathlessly as he pulled out of her, both ignoring the crude noise it made. 

 

“It happens a lot, like that time we went to the fair and I had to leave,” Peter gulped and looked her up and down one last time, drinking in her form. 

 

“Is it a-a Spider-Man thing?” 

 

The boy nodded, sweaty curls sticking to his forehead. He lay down next to her on the blanket, Michelle pulling her shirt back down and looking across at him. Peter scrunched his nose up and looked for somewhere to dispose of the used condom. 

 

“Throw it in the lake,” Michelle suggested, pulling her underwear and pants up. 

 

“The lake?” He squeaked, looking at her with wide eyes. 

 

“You got any other ideas?” 

 

“Well, what if someone goes swimming in it and then I become a father or some random child and know nothing about it?” 

 

“Throw it in a bush then,” MJ laughed slightly and pointed at the one behind them. 

 

“I-- well,” Peter sighed. “I guess I don’t really have a choice do I?” 

 

So with a cringe, he disposed of it in a nearby push, praying that Mother Nature would understand and also hoping that no one decided to go snooping in that particular bush anytime soon. He pulled his pants back up and looked over at MJ, clearing his throat.

 

“That was ok, right?” He asked, nerves tinting his voice. “You didn’t- I tried.” 

“I know, just because I didn’t orgasm doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe next time,” MJ replied, looking at the headphones that were long discarded and picking them up, giving him one before putting the other one in her own ear. “We’ve moved onto Fleetwood Mac, I see?” 

 

“Everyone likes Fleetwood Mac,” Peter whispered, ignoring the ‘next time’ comment. 

 

“Yes, I suppose they do,” MJ replied and looked up at the sky, which had now turned dark, small stars twinkling through the canopy of trees above them. 

 

Peter stared at her for a while, suddenly feeling rather grateful for his heightened eyesight allowing him to see her as clear as day. MJ glanced at him before shuffling over to lay her head on his chest, her hand running up and down his stomach. He smiled the rubbed circled on her back with his own hand. 

 

With some random Fleetwood Mac song that he couldn’t name right now pulsing quietly through his ears and the patchy moonlight shining down on them, he decided that they were both in fact, _very_ pretty. 


	9. Chapter 9

“So,” Michelle broke the silence between them. “Theoretically, since you’ve got superhuman stamina, would you not be ready to go in a matter of seconds?” 

Peter looked at her as her hand started trailing down his torso, leaving his skin ablaze in her wake. His breath hitched as her fingers reached his jeans, slipping underneath and tracing the outline of his length. He tensed underneath her, fixated on her every action. 

“I--I mean I guess,” His voice trailed off as he swallowed, watching as she undid his jeans and tugged them back down. 

She wrapped her fingers around him and stroked gently, looking up at him. Peter clenched his jaw and took a deep breath before making eye contact with her. Her making him feel this way was so wrong but so right at the same time. A low groan rumbled in his throat as she squeezed slightly. 

“Wait, I want--” He sighed and grabbed her wrist, pausing her motion. “I just want to do something for you now.” 

Michelle blushed slightly but took her hand out of his pants before cupping his face and kissing him. Peter kissed back, the kiss getting sloppy and their teeth knocking slightly. He obliged with Michelle’s prying hands and rolled on top of her. 

Peter sucked in a breath and gathered up his confidence, reaching under her shirt and cupping her breath by himself this time. Michelle almost seemed proud, her thumb stroking his jaw as he did it. 

He pulled away and sat back on his knees in between her legs before pulling her pants down. MJ kicked them off and watched as his hands stroked the inside of her thighs. She could feel the nerves radiating off him so she sat up and pressed a kiss under his jaw. 

Her hand ran through his hair gently, pushing it out of his face and giving him a reassuring smile. Peter looked at her, hoping that this wasn’t all some crazy fever dream. Even it was a dream, he wasn’t mad he was having it. 

“MJ?” He whispered, so quiet she almost didn’t hear him even though she was millimetres from his face.

“Yeah?”

“This isn’t-- this isn’t just a fling, right? I mean, we’re not gonna go back to hating each other tomorrow, right?” Peter asked, his fingers dancing around the hem of her underwear. 

“No, Peter. I never hated you anyway, you’re just kind of a loser sometimes,” She shrugged, he looked at her with a raised brow as her hands looped around his neck. “I don’t let people I don’t like have sex with me, speaking of, can we get this show on the road?” 

Peter blushed as she pressed more kisses to his neck before laying back down. She lifted her hips off the ground as he pulled her underwear off, pushing her legs up. He started mid-way down her thigh and left a path of wet kisses the further down he went. 

The closer he got, the more nervous the both of them got. MJ knew that Peter wasn’t experienced but there was no doubt in her mind he’d visited a few explicit websites before. She knew Peter wasn’t an idiot but still, she didn’t look like those girls and the last thing she wanted was for him to judge her because of it. 

His heart was about to burst out of his chest, he didn’t know how many other people had done this to her, not that it was any of his business. What if they were better at it than him? What if MJ thought he was terrible and never wanted to look at him again? 

With a sudden surge of confidence, he finally put his mouth where she wanted it most. MJ sighed, tangling a hand in his hair while the other found a place on top of his hand that was placed on her waist. 

He intertwined their fingers as his tongue, admittedly clumsily, drew circles and stripes over her heat. MJ bucked her hips up into him and whimpered as his breath fanned over her. She could feel everything as his spare hand snaked up her torso, coming to a stop on her breast. 

His thumb copied his tongue and rolled around her bud, causing MJ to jerk and moan, her hand tugging harder on his curls. Peter grunted against her and took note of every time she visibly enjoyed something in particular he did. He repeated things that he knew she liked and it helped, it gave him the confidence to do different things to figure out what else she liked. 

Knowing that he was making her feel this way was the best thing he’d ever experienced. 

Her own hand came down to aid him and herself in getting to her release until finally, she tugged the hardest she had at his hair and moaned his name the loudest she had. Her thighs clamped around his head and he rode out her high with her, their intertwined hands all but knitted together. 

Peter sat up and blushed at the thought of all the crude noises made while in between her legs. He wiped his mouth and chin with the back of his spare hand, avoiding eye contact with her. Michelle looked up at him, still catching her breath. 

“How was that the first time you’ve done that?” 

“What?” 

“How are you that good at it?” 

“So it was good?” MJ almost rolled her eyes at the way his lit up. 

“Someone’s watched instructional videos,” She teased while smiling up at him.

Peter blushed and lay down beside her again as she put her clothes back on. She tugged the hoodie he was just wearing over her body, leaving him to have put on the sweater she was previously wearing, which was actually his. 

He ran a hand through his hair and looked up at the sky, before looking back at MJ. 

“Ned and Gwen are probably looking for us,” He said after a moment of silence, turning his head to look at her. 

“Probably,” She hummed, yawning slightly. 

“We should probably go back now.” 

“Probably,” She said again, quieter this time before standing up from the blanket, Peter copying her. 

They both picked up all their belongings before starting to walk back to the campsite. Nothing was said between them but neither seemed to mind, taking small glances at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking. 

Every now and then, their hands brushed and every time, Peter’s blush intensified. He thought about taking her hand into his own but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Considering how intimate they were not that long ago, he wasn’t sure why he couldn’t just hold her hand. 

In a way, holding hands was even more intimate to him. It was a small gesture that seemed to mean more to him. The fact that holding hands was a public affair, that anyone who walked past would be able to see scared him. What if MJ didn’t want to people to see that? What if she just preferred their own private moments? 

Holding her hand meant they wanted to be as close to each other as possible at all times, so maybe he should just hold it. With all the debating going on in his head, he didn’t notice Michelle staring at him with furrowed brows. 

Peter was quiet, but he wasn’t this quiet. 

She noticed how his eyes flickered to their hands every time they touched, something that sure, Michelle had noticed, but didn’t think was a big deal. After all that they’d just done, she couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just do it, she could tell he wanted to. 

So, she did it for him. She took his hand into hers and intertwined their fingers, looking at him and raising a brow when he looked shocked. 

“What?” She shrugged. “You think I’d let you go down on me and then not hold your hand?” 

“Well--” 

“I know that’s what you were thinking,” Michelle cut him off, her thumb stroking his hand. She looked at him one last time before looking straight ahead and whispering, “I know you too well, you’re an open book, Peter.” 

“Am I?” 

“You wear your heart on your sleeve.” 

“May says that a lot.” 

“May is a very smart woman.” 

“Yeah,” Peter smiled a little. “I miss her.” 

“I miss May too and I’ve met her once,” MJ laughed a little and bumped his shoulder. 

Peter laughed slightly and looked at her, watching as she smiled at the ground. He looked down at their hands and his smile grew, feeling like everything was far too surreal. 

The walk back felt much, much faster than his walk there. Probably because of the fact Michelle was spitting out random star facts. He listened as she talked about different constellations or the fact that the sun wasn’t really that big compared to other stars, just closer to us than the others. 

He added in little things that popped into his head, but mostly just listened. 

When they got back, Ned and Gwen were still sitting around the campfire, just talking to each other. They weren’t making out for once, and Peter had never been happier to see Ned and Gwen together. 

Michelle’s hand was suddenly far more present in his, he swore he could feel every dip and wrinkle in her palm, which he probably could. Ned looked over and Peter wanted to shrink into himself as his best friends eye’s widened at the sight of their hands.   
He went to pull his hand away, but Michelle didn’t let him. She held onto him tighter and raised a brow at him. Gwen let out a squeal in the distance but Peter could only focus on Michelle and her stupid, pretty smirk. 

“I think MJ likes the camping trip now,” Gwen spoke sarcastically, poking MJ’s shoulder. 

Michelle rolled her eyes and punched Gwen’s arm lightly. Gwen didn’t even flinch and Peter huffed, finding it rather unfair that he was the only one to know what a real MJ punch felt like. He gulped as Ned threw his arms in the air in exasperation, his jaw dropping. 

Peter shrugged before MJ tugged on his hand, heading towards their tent. Peter turned and looked back at Ned as he stumbled after MJ, raising his brows and offering a small smile. Michelle unzipped the tent and crawled in before tugging on Peter’s hand again, causing him to follow after. 

He zipped up the tent just as Ned’s voice echoed through the night sky. 

“I fucking knew it!” 

Peter laughed slightly and pushed his hair out of his face before looking at MJ, who had opened up her sketchbook for the first time in days. He pencil was scribbling frantically along the paper and Peter furrowed his brows. “What’re you drawing?” 

“Don’t move,” She whispered, her face so close to the page her nose was almost touching it. 

So Peter didn’t move, he sat perfectly still and watched her draw. Well, as still as Peter could be, which meant at least tapping his fingers on his leg. He wasn’t sure how long it had been but she finally shut the book and put it away, making Peter frown. 

“Why can’t I see?” 

“I don’t let anyone see.” 

“You let me see the other day.” 

“That was different, that sketch didn’t mean anything,” Michelle shrugged before hesitating to add, “Well, it didn’t mean nothing, it meant something, but it was different.”

“Ok,” Peter hummed and lay down on the mattress. If MJ didn’t want to show him then she didn’t have too. 

She lay down and put her head on his chest again before grabbing her book, opening it up to where she’d shoved a leaf in as a bookmark. Peter watched as her eyes scanned the page and flipped the pages much faster than he ever could. 

“Read it to me,” Peter whispered, putting one hand behind his head while the other played with the end of her hair. 

“You want me to read to you?” MJ asked dubiously. 

“Yeah.” 

“You won’t understand, I’ve nearly finished the book.” 

“Is it the one you told me about last night?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Then I’ll be fine. It’s about that green bean guy saving the Jews and spying on the Nazi’s isn’t it?” 

“How do you get green bean guy from Pino?” Michelle looked at him, debating if she wanted to punch him for being an idiot or not and in the end, deciding she couldn’t be bothered. 

“I dunno, anyway, I’ve got a general idea, so just read.” 

So she did, reading every word flawlessly while Peter took it all in, just enjoying the sound of her voice. He’d never heard her like this before, talking in such a calm way. So expressively yet peacefully at the same time. Usually, her voice was monotone with a ‘the person I’m talking to is dumb’ undertone. 

Peter always liked the sound of her voice, but he enjoyed her voice like that the most. 

The only sound beside her voice were the crickets in the distance and the breeze caressing the trees. Peter’s eyes were gaining weight, gradually leaving him feeling as if he was unable to open them. 

MJ could feel his chest taking in deeper breaths, and the hand playing with her hair came to a rest, she wished it didn’t. She stopped reading and looked at him, studying his face. She’d never noticed the slight freckling on the bridge of his nose before. 

Her finger ran over them genially and Peter’s lips cracked in a small smile. MJ froze and her eyes went wide as Peter peeked at her from under his eyelashes. “It takes me more than five minutes to fall asleep completely, just for future reference next time you wanna be obsessed with me.” 

Huffing, she ran her hands over her face to cover up the warning signs of a blush as his smile grew wider. MJ sat up and faced away from him, her knees to her chest. She heard him open his mouth to reply and roll over towards her, but they both stopped at the sound of mumbling in the distance.

“-they haven’t had dinner, they must be hungry.” 

“No, Ned, Baby, leave them alone-” 

“And they have to do the dishes! They keep being too angsty to do the dishes so we do them. Now they don’t want to rip each other's throats out for once, so they can heat up the dinner we made them, then they can do the dishes.” 

“Ned-” 

“Knock, knock!” Ned yelled from outside, banging on the wall of the tent. “Stop eating each other’s faces off and open the door.”

 

“That’s rich coming from you two,” MJ grumbled and unzipped the tent before getting out. Peter took a deep breath and followed, stretching out his back when he could stand up straight. 

He rubbed his eyes and narrowed them at Ned, giving Gwen a small smile. Peter took the bucket of dishes from Ned’s hands while MJ took the plates of food and they stalked off towards the kitchen without another word. 

“I’m actually really hungry,” Peter muttered, looking at the food. 

“Really? I thought you just ate,” MJ mused, putting the food in the microwave. 

Peter blushed wildly, his whole face stained beet red and he pulled the neck of his sweater up, burrowing into it. He could hear Michelle laughing at him as he groaned slightly. Peter lowered the sweater low enough to glance at her and roll his eyes at the stupid smirk on her face. 

“Yeah well, it wasn’t all that satisfying,” He sighed sarcastically, immediately regretting the comment when she gave him a pointed look. Peter quickly grabbed cutlery for both of them and bolted to a table outside in an attempt to escape her wrath. 

MJ joined him a minute later, holding both their plates of food, Peter was occupying himself by banging his knife and fork together. She had to resist commenting on what an irritating noise it made. 

Sitting down in front of him, she slid his plate over and he thanked her quietly before shovelling it into his mouth. Michelle eyed him carefully before eating her own much neater than Peter. 

“So,” Michelle said, looking up at him as a scared expression washed over his face. “Someone got bold in the space of an hour.” 

Peter shrugged and continued to eat, the beginnings of a proud smirk taking over. 

“Say sex.” 

“Sex.” Peter deadpanned, looking straight at her. 

“Who are you and what have you done with Peter Parker?” She questioned with narrowed eyes, causing him to laugh and shake his head. He ended up shrugging and smiling at her, finding this dinner much nicer than it really was. 

They ate in silence, a good silence, and when they were finished, Peter grabbed their dishes and took it to the sink. MJ followed and started running the water and set up the drying rack. It seemed to be an unspoken agreement between them, that they would assume the same jobs as they did last time, Peter washing, MJ drying. 

Unlike last time, there wasn’t a tense awkwardness between them that made both feel like they were drowning. Peter knew very well what drowning felt like. So, Peter started washing the dishes before passing them on to Michelle. 

There was a light conversation running, Peter asking questions about her book, finding himself more and more invested in the story as she spoke. Again, Peter had never heard her sound like this before. She was only talking about a book but she spoke as if it was one of the most important things in the world. Peter could only dream of feeling that passionate about something. 

When he looked over, he was ecstatic to see her placing the dishes exactly how he told her to the first time. He yawned and felt his eyes droop slightly. MJ looked over and watched as his movements got increasingly lethargic, the warm water probably not helping. 

Before he knew it, one of the plastic plates he was cleaning was snapped (sounded off) in half. Peter was suddenly wide awake, staring at the two pieces stuck in his hand. He lifted his hand up and tried to let them go, but they were well and truly stuck. 

Michelle was gaping up at him and Peter was having flashbacks to when he first got his abilities. Then MJ started laughing, properly laughing and again, Peter had never heard anything like it. Peter started laughing too waving his hands about and trying to shake the broken plate off. He gave up after a few seconds and leaned on the table taking a deep breath and looking back at MJ. 

“Peter,” Michelle wheezed, “What the fuck?” 

“When I get tired everything kind of turns to shit,” He laughed, holding his hands out to her. Michelle grabbed one of the plates and tugged on it slightly, she tugged a couple more times while Peter willed himself to let go until finally, they came off. 

“How strong are you to snap a plastic plate this thick in half?” She asked, examining the two pieces and slotting them back together.

“Captain America dropped a like, twenty-ton thing that you walk on to get in a plane on me once,” Peter shrugged before grabbing another dish and continuing to wash it. 

“An aerobridge?” Michelle’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly. 

“Sure,” Peter looked at her. “If you wanna get fancy.” 

“He could’ve killed you!” 

“Well,” Peter narrowed his eyes in thought. “I don’t think he was trying to kill me, plus, it’s not like he knew I was only fourteen.” 

“Fourteen?!” Michelle squeaked. 

“Yeah,” Peter furrowed his brow. “Remember when I disappeared for a few days? I was Germany with Mr Stark, fighting Cap about important things.” 

“The accords?” 

“Yep.” 

“Wouldn’t you have to sign those?” 

“Uh, good question. Ask Mr Stark.” 

“Peter,” Michelle sighed. “You should really talk to him about this, it’s kind of important.” 

“I’ll be fine and when I do, I’ll bring you. You’re smart and I trust you.” 

“I thought Iron Mans word was equivalent to God’s,” She whispered dramatically and waved her hands in the air. 

“Yeah, it is, but yours is even better.” 

Michelle blushed and looked away, clearly taken aback by the somewhat strange compliment. Peter glanced over at her, silently enjoying the way he’d made her blush over simple words. He supposed it was because Michelle didn’t get compliments often, which Peter thought was insane. 

Sure, Michelle was closed off but that didn’t make her any less worthy of friendship or love than any other person. He supposed that people were just scared of her because of the way she navigated life, analytically and privately. She said whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted and he didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. 

MJ kept him on his toes and as much as he shied away, Peter liked it. He liked not knowing what was coming next. Michelle threw all sorts at him every day, but she knew his reflexes were far too fast to let anything hit him. 

The grill of the barbeque was taking much longer to clean than Peter would’ve liked, his arm moving vigorously to get all the grime off of it. The motion of his arm made him huff and of course, made a curl fall into his face. 

MJ, who was distracted by the flexing of his bicep, snapped back to reality at his attempts to blow it out of his face. She reached out and gingerly pushed it back onto his head, using it as an excuse to run her fingers through his hair at the same time.

“I think you’ve touched my hair more in the past few days then I have my entire life,” Peter chuckled, looking at her. 

“It’s soft,” She murmured and looked back at him before packing the dishes back into the bucket. 

Peter finished up the last of them and they cleaned up the kitchen together before starting to go back to their campsite. 

Michelle tugged at the strings on her, well, Peter’s hoodie as she hummed to herself quietly. Peter listened, feeling rather privileged that MJ felt comfortable enough around him to do small things like that. Things that even Peter would only ever do in the privacy of his own bedroom, not even around May. 

“You know what I miss?” Peter broke the silence. “Showers.” 

“Have you not showered this entire time?” MJ asked her eyes widening as she took a step away.

“What? No,” Peter laughed slightly. “I just hate them here, you have to pay and they aren’t even good.” 

“Well, you could’ve phrased that better,” Michelle sighed and returned to her previous position beside him. 

Peter shrugged and put the dishes away when they reached the site, Michelle going straight into the tent. He climbed in and took his sweater and jeans off, sighing in relief. MJ pulled her own hoodie and shirt off and Peter blushed at her bare torso. 

“Oh c’mon,” She rolled her eyes and put a bralette on. “It’s not like you didn’t see them all that long ago, it seemed to me like you rather enjoyed them.” 

“That’s different,” Peter muttered as she pulled her jeans off. 

“So, you can have your nipples out,” She gestured to his own bare chest. “But I can’t?” 

“No, no, no, that’s not what I meant--” 

“I know,” MJ smiled and laughed slightly. “I’m just messing with you.” 

Peter smiled, breathing out a laugh before laying down, Michelle next to him. 

“You know,” He said after a while, Michelle burying her head into his neck. “I don’t really want to leave, Em.” 

“Yeah,” Michelle whispered against his warm skin, ignoring the way her heart fluttered when he called her Em. “Me neither.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhh its been a few too many days oopsies. i hope i've made up for it hehe. this one is a bit longer than the other ones but i feel like it's maybe a wee bit all over the place? thanks for 100 kudos and 2k hits <33   
> twitter: lowqualtom


	10. Chapter 10

Just like a lot of nights since, Peter woke up with a gasp. His heart was thumping in his ears while leaving a lingering pain in his chest. After realising where he was, still in a tent, still next to MJ, he sighed, pressing his palms into his eyes. 

 

He calmed the rapid rise and fall of his chest before looking over and spotting Michelle who, to his surprise, was already looking at him. Her mouth was tilted into a frown, her book resting neatly on her lap while the dim light of the lamp illuminated her worried features.

 

“Peter,” She whispered. “Are you okay?” 

 

“Why-why are you awake?” Peter cleared his throat after a moment of silence.

 

“No reason,” Michelle shrugged, looking down at her book and running a finger along the spine. “Just couldn’t sleep I guess.” 

 

Peter knew she was lying, noticing that her eyes were rimmed with red. He turned onto his side, his body now facing her as he reached out a hand and engulfed hers with it. She glanced at him quickly, peering at him through wet eyelashes. 

 

“Wanna talk about it?” He murmured, his voice gentle. MJ stayed silent, lightly chewing on the inside of her cheek. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Em.” 

 

MJ took a deep breath and tilted her head, she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She sighed, squeezing Peter’s hand. He tugged on it gently, pulling her to lay down next to him. Michelle obliged, putting her book to the side before shuffling down, their faces in line with each other. 

 

“I was just thinking about my sister,” She admitted, sniffing slightly as she adjusted her head on the pillow. 

 

“I’m sorry, MJ,” He frowned, his thumb rubbing circles into her hand. 

 

“I don’t normally think about her, but it happens occasionally. What were you dreaming about?” 

 

“Space.” 

 

“As in-- outer space?” She furrowed her brows.

 

“Yeah,” He nodded. “Long story.” 

 

“Sounds like I need to beat up Tony Stark, only he would take you to space.” 

 

“Well-- it was my fault, but I wanna see you beat up Mr Stark, so yeah, he took me to space.” 

MJ laughed slightly and Peter smiled small, watching her eyes crinkle at the sides. He wrapped his other hand around the small of her back, pulling her in closer and letting her rest her head in the crook of his neck. 

 

They both let the silence consume them, covering them like a blanket. Neither minded it, rather, they welcomed it. The only sound was that of their own breathing and heartbeats. Every so often, Peter would press his lips to her head, making Michelle smile to herself. 

 

Having not fully woken up, Peter was the first to fall asleep. MJ followed suit, copying every rise and fall of his chest. 

 

The next morning had a rather abrupt start, they both jumped awake to the sound of the table outside crashing to the ground. Peter thought he was about to explode, his heart about to come bursting out of his chest. When he realised that no one was dying, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking down at MJ who seemed rather annoyed by all the ruckus. 

 

She sat up and pulled a shirt over her head, clambering out of the tent with folded arms. 

 

“What the hell are you two even doing?” Peter could hear her grumble from inside, he could picture the scowl on her face vividly. 

 

“We have to be out of here in an hour,” Gwen stated matter of factly, on the border of sounding condescending. Peter knew Michelle would not be happy with her tone of voice. He was right. 

 

“Yeah, no shit Gwen, but do you have to be so damn loud about it?” 

 

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” Ned whistled, signalling that Peter should get out there before MJ ripped his limbs off one by one. 

 

He crawled out of the tent, shivering in the morning cold. Folding his arms over his chest, he walked up next to Michelle and narrowed his eyes at Ned. Ned waved his hands in the air, not understanding why Peter was glaring at him. 

 

“Oh-- Oh, I see why she’s so grumpy,” Ned smirked, gesturing between the two of them. Peter swore he heard MJ growl before she took a step towards Ned, causing him to flinch and raise his hands in defence. 

 

“Ok look, you just woke us up with a loud noise and it was kind of scary so let’s just- let’s just all drop this?” Peter grabbed Michelle’s wrist and attempted to defuse the situation, something he couldn’t believe he was doing less than ten minutes after waking up. 

 

“Well can you two help? We’re gonna stop at McDonald's to get breakfast on the way back?” Gwen asked, raising her brows and pointing at their still-up tent. “We’ve done the majority of it and all you guys have to do is pack up your own stuff.” 

 

They both agreed, going back into their tent and getting dressed before putting their bags in the boot of Gwen’s car. 

 

Peter continued to pack up the air mattress and bedding, Michelle standing to the side and telling him he was doing it wrong. He couldn’t care less, just wanting to get it over and done with but no, Michelle wanted everything done perfectly. 

 

MJ would scowl every time he rolled his eyes and mocked her. Her scowl would never last long, transforming into a small smile as soon as he looked away. 

 

Within the hour, they’d manage to stack everything into Gwen’s tiny car. Somehow, they’d managed to be leaving with more than they came with because Peter couldn’t remember the car being that full. Yet, here they were, Michelle and Peter sitting together in the back with the fold away table pushed up against the back of the front seats, Peter could barely see over it. 

 

Gwen was already blasting music from her phone, some kind of bubblegum pop that neither Peter or MJ enjoyed very much but it was her car so who were they to say anything. The one time Peter had put headphones while she played her music, Gwen nearly burst into tears, Peter would never forget it. 

 

Michelle had finished all the books she’d bought for the trip, already having reread one of them and wasn’t really in the mood to reread another. So she sat with her hands clasped in her lap, staring out the window. 

Peter did the same, feeling every jolt and bump in the road as Gwen drove. He really wished she’d put both hands on the steering wheel instead of just one, but again, who was he to tell her how to drive her own car. His eyes dropped as he leaned his head against the cool glass of her once pristine window. 

 

Before he knew it, his shoulder was being wiggled back and forth while MJ called his name in a monotone voice, her breath fanning into his ear. Peter took a deep breath and forced his eyes open to see Michelle staring at him, her eyebrow raised and a small smile on her face. 

 

“We’re at McGrease.” 

He sat up straight and rubbed his eyes, attempting to blink the blurriness away. MJ pushed his hair out of his face and pressed a kiss to his lips. Peter blushed, looking around the car to see if Ned and Gwen had seen, but they weren’t in the front seats anymore.

 

“They’re already inside,” She hummed, twirling one of his curls around her finger. “I told them I’d wait for you to wake up.”

 

“Oh,” He cleared his throat. “Well, I’m awake now.” 

 

“I see that,” MJ undid his seatbelt for him and leaned over, opening his door. “Now let’s go.” 

 

Peter stumbled out of the car, stretching his arms out over his head and wincing at the cracking noises from his spine. Michelle came up behind him and slapped her hand on his lower back, causing him to jump and spin around to look at her. 

 

“Hurry up, Spidey,” She smiled and walked ahead, not bothering to look back at him. 

 

Peter sighed and stumbled after, noticing Gwen and Ned with a mountain of food sitting at a table. He sat next to Michelle, cringing at the sticky table. Ned pushed half of the total food towards him and Peter had never felt so happy to see McDonald’s before. 

 

There was just something about camping that made food-- unappealing. Not to mention, he’d definitely lost some weight from the little amount of food he’d eaten over the trip. He gave his best friend a thankful look before digging in, shoving nugget after fry after McMuffin into his mouth. 

 

MJ picked at her hot cakes, Ned nibbled on his hashbrown and Gwen just straight up stared. 

 

“What?” Peter said after looking up. “I’m fucking starving.” 

 

“Good thing we used Tony Stark's emergency credit card,” Ned hummed. 

 

“You what?” Peter squeaked. 

 

“We used the emergency credit card he gave you, he’s a billionaire he won’t even notice.” 

 

“Mr Stark notices everything.” 

 

“Ok whatever, this is an emergency anyway, clearly,” Ned gestured to the pile of rubbish Peter had produced. 

 

“Ned, you’re gonna get me killed.” 

 

“Better you than me.” 

 

Peter growled and bit into his apple pie, glaring at Ned in a way no one had ever seen from Peter before. He didn’t glare, he was too nice (or too much of a pushover, you decide.) Ned and Gwen struck up another conversation which both Michelle and Peter ignored. 

 

He was just about to take another bite out of his food when a hand landed on the inside of his thigh. His knee jumped up, hitting the table above him. Gwen squealed while Ned grabbed her hand and squeezed tightly, MJ laughing loudly. The whole table rattled, the plate that bolted the table to the floor even lifting up slightly. Peter winced and grabbed his knee. 

 

A whine escaped his mouth and he leaned his head on the top of the table, a small laugh bubbling out of him as he took a deep breath. 

 

“Okay, Spider-Man, I’m sure you’ve been through worse,” Michelle said, laughter present in her voice as she rubbed his knee gently. 

 

“Stop call me Spider-Man in public,” He whispered, looking up at her with wide eyes and gesturing to the ever-packed McDonalds. 

 

“As if these random people are even listening to our conversation or believe a seventeen-year-old boy who’s shorter than his girlfriend is Spider-Man,” She rolled her eyes but froze when she realised what she’d just said, her breath hitching in her throat as she looked away from him. 

 

“Girlfriend?” Peter’s voice cracked as his own breath collapsed back into his lungs. 

 

“Well,” She removed her hand from his leg, looking at Ned and Gwen who quickly turned their backs to Peter and Michelle, whispering to each other about how the eggs at McDonald's probably weren’t real eggs. “I didn’t mean to say it just slipped out, I don’t like labels anyway, they’re stupid and pointless and restricting. Besides, it’s not like you would want a girlfriend anyway with all that-- stuff-- you have going on. I’m far too busy with Academic Decath--” 

 

“MJ,” He cut her off, grabbing her hand that was anxiously tugging at the ends of her hair and intertwining their fingers. “If you could allow for just one label I’d really like that to be my girlfriend and I’ll add another next to the nerd label that says ‘ _ MJ’s boyfriend, _ ’ if that’s ok with you.” 

 

Michelle looked up at him through her fringe and mumbled, “I guess I could make an exception.” 

 

Peter smiled, brushing her hair out of her face before kissing her gently, his hand cupping her jaw. Just as Michelle’s hand found it’s way back onto his thigh, there was the sound of someone clearing their throat across from them. 

 

Peter pulled away, blushing and looking at the floor on the other side of him. He could hear Ned complaining, while Michelle fired back that she’d had to deal with the two of them ‘going at it like rabbits’ throughout the whole camping trip, so they could deal with a two-second kiss.  

 

Ned began to argue with her and as she retorted back, her hand slowly grazing higher and higher up his leg. Peter’s jaw clenched tighter with each passing second, a slow smile creeping onto MJ’s face. He glanced at her sideways, gulping when her hand was mere centimetres from where he knew she wanted to put it. 

 

His leg wanted to jump again, he could feel it building it up and when she was just a fraction away, his hand snapped down and grabbed hers. Her fingers stroked back and forth slowly, blazing a trail into his skin, like some kind of sick tattoo he would never forget. 

 

Peter looked at Michelle who had a teasing smirk plastered on her face. He pushed her hand down his leg, MJ’s face falling as he did so. His fingers snaked over her own, wrapping around them and squeezing tightly. Peter glanced at Ned and Gwen, asking them to take the rubbish to the bin, which they begrudgingly did. 

 

“You know,” Peter whispered. “We don’t have to- do-- sexual stuff all the time.” 

 

“I know,” MJ shrugged. “But why not?” 

 

“I’m ok with in private but in a McDonald’s on seats that I’m probably gonna get stuck to is a bit too- out there for me. Sorry.” 

 

“Just say you’re a prude and get it over with,” MJ laughed, looking down at the table. 

 

“Hey,” Peter fakes offence and laughed, poking her arm. “In all seriousness, sex or not I still like you and want to be with you.”    

 

Michelle immediately perked up and looked at him. Her eyes softened as they flickered up and down his face. Peter smiled slightly as his thumb stroked over her knuckles. A small smile overcame her as well, the corners of her lips turning up ever so slightly.

 

MJ had only ever experienced people wanting something from her, wanting their homework done, their picture drawn, someone to release their built up sexual frustration. She had always figured that hell, if they came to her they must be really desperate. 

 

So when Peter told her that he didn’t want  _ something _ from her, he just wanted  _ her _ , to say she was shocked would be an understatement. She couldn’t understand why, it’s not like she had all that much to offer in her opinion. Michelle wouldn’t call her company appealing. She didn’t do much except read and butt into conversations she wasn’t invited into but here he was, wanting her, and all of her. 

 

MJ went to reply but was cut off by Peter’s phone ringing in his back pocket. The ringtone was reminiscent of a horror movie and the second it played, his face dropped. He cursed under his breath but still whipped his phone out and answered it as quickly as possible. 

 

“Mr Stark!” His already high voice went up another 10 octaves and Michelle couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her mouth. 

 

_ “Tell me why you’ve just spent ninety dollars at McDonald's on the emergency card?”  _

 

“Is keeping our bodies full of the necessary vitamins and nutrients needed to survive and live long and happy lives not an emergency?” 

 

____________________________________

 

Peter couldn’t sleep the rest of the way back, instead, MJ fell asleep with her head leaning against his shoulder. His arm wrapped around the back of her shoulder and twirled her hair gently, goosebumps raising as her hot breath fanned over his skin. 

 

He leant his own head on top of hers, his headphones plugged firmly inside his ears to block out Gwen’s constant rambling about this years school musical. As creepy as it may have sounded, Peter thought MJ sleeping was the perfect time to think about her, everything to do with her. 

 

The fact that a week ago he would’ve said he hated Michelle with no hesitation and now here he was, holding her while she slept almost scared him. Was it normal? Had they rushed? Peter didn’t feel like they’d rushed anything, but when he thought about it, he told himself they had. 

 

He figured that losing his virginity next to a lake in the middle of nowhere with a girl he ‘hated’ a mere day before was rushed. And now he was his girlfriend, which felt weird to say, considering he’d never had a girlfriend before. Peter used to tell himself that Liz was his girlfriend at one point in time, but she wasn’t, not in the same way that MJ was his girlfriend now. 

 

Why did he ever hate her in the first place? Probably because Michelle scared him. Not in the way that he thought she was going to sneak into his apartment at night and murder him, rather, he admired her. 

 

She was smarter than him, in more ways than one. Michelle could find her way around all of New York as easily as she could find her way around a party and around a history essay. She was too good at everything, and that’s what scared Peter. 

 

Even though he was Spider-Man, there was no doubt in his mind that she could beat him up in a heartbeat if she wanted to. 

 

Peter was the first to be dropped off, he gently pushed Michelle off his shoulder and climbed out of the car. Due to the precariously stacked belongings in the boot of Gwen’s car, it took him a good few minutes to get his bags out safely. He shut the boot and said goodbye to Gwen and Ned, thanking them for the trip before turning to the entrance of his apartment building. 

 

“Hang on,” A croaky voice came from the car as Michelle got out and walked over to Peter, pressing her lips against his quickly. She looked down at the ground and scuffed her feet when they pulled apart. “Do you- do you think I can stay at yours for a bit? I don’t really want to go home just yet.” 

 

”Yeah,” Peter nodded and smiled small. “Yeah, of course, you can.”  

 

MJ smiled and went back to the car, grabbing her bags out with the help of Peter. She waved goodbye to the couple in the car, giving them the middle finger at the end. Gwen returned the favour while Ned smiled cheesily as the car sped away. 

 

Michelle followed Peter as he led the way up to his apartment, opening the door with his keys and immediately dumping his bags on the floor. He’d barely been given time to breathe when his Aunt all but tackled him into a hug. Michelle stood behind, slightly awkwardly, watching as he hugged back tightly, reassuring May that he was in fact, still alive. 

 

“Michelle,” May’s eyes widened and Michelle gave a small wave, her eyes flickering to a nervous looking Peter. “How are you? Is everything-- sorry I just didn’t expect to see you here, is all.” 

 

“I know, it’s okay, my parents are just um, out,” MJ stammered. “So I can’t go home just yet, I can go if you’re--” 

 

“Oh, no, no, don’t be silly, of course, you can stay here for as long as you need,” May ushered her inside the apartment further, shutting the door and taking Michelle's things for her. She placed them down on the couch before clasping her hands together in front of her chest, glancing between Peter and Michelle. “Food?” 

 

“Yeah, food sounds great, May. I’m just gonna go to the bathroom first if that’s ok?” Michelle asked, pointing in the general direction of the restroom. 

 

May waved her off and watched her leave before turning to Peter with a raised eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t like Michelle?” 

 

“We- uh- we-we sorted things out?” Peter scratched the back of his neck, sounding rather unsure of his answer that wasn’t necessarily false. 

 

“Sorted things out? What do you mean, sorted things out?” 

 

“You know, we talked, and stuff…” 

 

“Stuff? What’s stuff?” 

 

“Stuff?” Peter squeaked as the bathroom door opened again, Michelle walking back into the kitchen. May gave Peter a look that he knew meant their conversation wasn’t finished as she grabbed leftovers from the fridge and put them in the microwave. 

 

Peter had never felt so awkward around his Aunt. He felt like he was keeping a dirty secret from her, which, he kind of was. There were moments he nearly blurted out what exactly ‘stuff’ was, but that would’ve made their already awkward lunch more awkward. 

 

It was almost like keeping Spider-Man a secret all over again. He hated lying to May with a passion, especially since she was such an understanding person. And it wasn’t like May would be upset if he told her what ‘stuff’ was, she’d already expressed her opinions on the matter through a sufficiently embarrassing talk with Peter. 

 

Michelle and May were talking about a piece of art hanging on the wall behind Peter’s head. Even though they were both very clearly looking at the painting, he couldn’t help but feel like they were staring at him. He couldn’t help but feel that May knew exactly what was going on and he wasn’t sure why it made him feel so paranoid. 

 

He wanted to enjoy that fact that two most important people in his life were bonding, but he just couldn’t. Eventually, Michelle picked up on his out-of-character behaviour and nudged his foot under the table. 

 

“Are you ok, Peter?” 

 

“Yep, perfect,” His voice cracked as he took all the dishes up to the sink. He dumped them, making a loud noise and causing both women at the table to flinch before he grabbed MJ’s hand, pulling her up from the table. “I’ve just gotta show MJ something, in my room, very important.” 

 

May couldn’t even get a single word in before Peter had already shut the door behind him and MJ. 

 

“Jesus, Peter,” MJ laughed slightly. “Who lit a fire under your ass today?” 

 

“I just feel weird not telling May about everything, because well, I tell her everything. I couldn’t look at her for much longer because I was scared I might explode.” 

 

MJ rolled her eyes, grabbing Peter’s face and kissing him fervently. His hands, wrapped around her waist when he realised they weren’t going to stop anytime soon. They walked backwards until they hit the edge of his bed, MJ’s knees buckling and pulling Peter down onto the mattress with her. 

 

Peter climbed over top of her, one hand on her hip while the other was placed beside her head as it held him up. Their legs intertwined with each other, Michelle’s hand sliding down his back. She could feel his skin raise just before his bedroom door opened, May standing on the other side before leaning on the door frame. 

 

“I knew it.” 

 

Yeah, May knew it. Eventually, so did everyone else. There were stares from people at school that made both of them slightly nervous but they stopped after people got bored. Ned and Gwen sure as hell knew it just from the sight of Peter and MJ looking at each other. 

 

Tony knew it and made some comment about protection when he saw some of the footage from Peter’s suit that he really wished he could forget. Heck, even a few random people knew about it when they saw a girl clinging on tightly to their very own Spider-Man as they swung through the city. 

 

Peter got in trouble for that later, but it was worth it. 

 

Everyone knew it from the minute they saw them and finally, Peter knew it too. 

 

He was the first one to say ‘I love you,’ and maybe he rushed it, considering he’d scared MJ enough to run out of Peter’s apartment without another word. 

 

She hadn’t got far, however. MJ sat on the stairwell for a couple of minutes before returning to his apartment, standing at the doorway while the opening sequence of Game of Thrones illuminated Peter’s hurt features. 

 

“I love you too, Peter.” 

 

It took them long enough but they figured it out eventually,

 

_ Thank God for camping.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok um wow this has been a bit of a wild ride. as i'm posting this last chapter we have (approx.) 3000 reads and nearly 200 kudos, which is, insane?????? 
> 
> i literally posted this expecting it to be a stupid one shot and it turned into this so i- wow- thanks????? ngl im so glad it's finished because on god she made me tiredT. but now i can move onto bigger and better things!! hehe thanks for reading xx.
> 
> follow me on twitter: @/rueshewitt


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